Dr. William Lile welcomes new lives into the world for a living, and he wants UF students to know that he intends to keep it that way.
Lile held a discussion about how he works in obstetrics and gynecology while also being pro-life. Ten people attended the discussion where he advised medical students about balancing their pro-life views with their work in the field.
He attended UF’s residency program, the medical training required to be a doctor, in Pensacola and is board-certified in his field.
The discussion was organized by Gators for Life, a UF pro-life organization. Lile discussed how he treats the pre-born as patients through medical procedures or through helping a woman reverse her abortion.
“We didn’t have any pro-life organization when I was in residency,” Lile said. “We now can use the tools of modern obstetrics, whether it is ultrasound, MRI or fetoscopic surgery to show how we treat the pre-born as patients.”
The discussion addressed a worldwide controversy for abortion. Being pro-life is believing that abortion is wrong because it is killing a human life, and being pro-choice is believing that everyone has the right to decide when to have children, according to Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood believes women should be able to choose when, where and when not to have a pregnancy, said Kai Christmas, a 23-year-old who graduated from UF in 2018 and majored in health education and behavior and is the regional organizer of Planned Parenthood of Southeast and North Florida.
“We believe that a pregnant person should always be the person who decides what happens to their pregnancy,” Christmas said. “Whether they want to become a parent, adopt or terminate a pregnancy, it should always be up to that person.”
Lile travels to speak about his work, sometimes multiple times a month. He said he has delivered more than 4,000 babies and said he has never done an abortion.
“If they are a patient, they are a person,” said Lile. “And if they are a person, they are deserving of protection.”
Lile said he has been pro-life since he was a kid, and he was taught that every patient should be treated with respect and value as a person. He said those who are pro-life are stating that the patient in the womb is just as valuable.
Holly Ryan said she believes everyone needs to be aware of these issues regardless of what major or field you go to. The 24-year-old first year doctoral student in biomedical engineering is the co-president of Gators for Life and helped organize the event.
“I grew up pro-life, and I’ve always stood by the pro-life views and believed in the value of human life from conception to death,” Ryan said. “So to know that there are other pro-life students, is huge.”
Ryan Joseph, a 25-year-old medical student, said he just finished his OB-GYN rotation and has been pro-life his entire life. Joseph is part of the Catholic Medical Association and Gators for Life.
“It’s good for the public university to be open to hearing both sides of the equations,” Joseph said.
Contact Anna Wilder at awilder@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @anna_wilderr.
Dr. William Lile
Anna Wilder is a second-year journalism major and the criminal justice reporter. She's from Melbourne, Florida, and she enjoys being outdoors or playing the viola when she's not writing.
