A coalition of 51 medical associations is mobilizing forces and raising money to help defeat a Nov. 3 voter initiative in the state of Washington that would ban any form of affirmative action. And minority groups as well as higher education leaders are conducting research and planning court strategies to challenge the movement against affirmative action. The coalition opposing the ballot measure, representing some two million medical professionals, includes the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association. The Washington vote, called Initiative 200, is one of several drives that have been undertaken against affirmative action in recent years. Since 1996, a Federal appeals court has ordered a rollback in affirmative-action programs in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Lawsuits are also in progress to ban affirmative action in Michigan and Maryland.
And California's Board of Regents has effectively banned affirmative action at state universities. First-year minority entrants at medical schools declined by a total of 12 percent from 1994 to 1997. These minorities accounted for 11 percent of the 16,165 matriculating medical students. In both 1996 and 1997, black medical schools had slight increases in enrollment. Those minority groups represent about 21 percent of the nation's total population.