American College of Physicians Pledges to Fight for DEI in Response to Trump Executive Orders

The American College of Physicians (ACP) has pledged to advocate for its “equity” agenda in response to President Trump’s executive orders cracking down on DEI, particularly among medical associations.

On February 7, ACP issued a statement and organizational guidance explaining its posture toward the Trump administration. The guidance particularly focused on President Trump’s DEI executive orders, and doubled down on the organization’s commitment to DEI while pledging further advocacy efforts.

“We’re reaffirming our commitment to equity, compassion, inclusion and justice as our core values,” Shari Erickson, ACP’s “chief advocacy officer and senior vice president of governmental affairs and public policy,” said in the statement.

The guidance also contained an item stating that the organization will “Reaffirm That Equity Is an Essential Bedrock of ACP Policy.”

“Equity is such an integral part of our policies and principles that we needed to reaffirm our positions,” Erickson said.

It’s worth noting that the ACP has been the beneficiary of millions in federal funding through grants and contracts that have enabled the organization to operate several advertised programs. For instance, in the first Trump administration, the organization received over $2 million in federal funding for its “I Raise the Rates” vaccination program.

The ACP further pledged to further its advocacy efforts in response to the executive orders.

“We need to strike the right balance and have meaningful impact on the implementation of policies or their reversal,” Erickson said. “There are various ways that we can respond: through public statements, responses regarding regulations and letters to the administration and members of Congress, and by filing friend-of-the-court briefs in court cases.”

President Trump’s executive order asked the heads of federal agencies and departments to produce a strategic enforcement plan to deter illegal DEI programs and practices, with each agency tasked with identifying “nine potential civil compliance investigations” of private-sector organizations. Moreover, the executive order explicitly mentions “medical associations” as targets of enforcement action.

Do No Harm previously reported that many medical associations who have openly embraced DEI and gender ideology had opted to avoid public disavowals of the Trump executive orders. However, some organizations, like the National Association of School Psychologists, have taken public stances defending their DEI practices.

The ACP is no stranger to activism and advocacy that strays away from its organizational purview of medicine and into identity politics. For instance, the ACP proposed a framework for health equity that included criminal justice and law enforcement reforms.

We hope the ACP ends its DEI advocacy and abandons this discriminatory and regressive ideology.