Bringing choice to med school - Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education to require abortion training in all Ob/Gyn residencies

Progressive, The, June, 1995 by Kristi Coale

New York City

The recent decision by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education requiring all Ob/Gyn residency programs to offer abortion training is a major victory for pro-choice advocates. But the real work toward bringing reproductive-health issues into medical-school curricula is just beginning.

With an eye toward offering more immediate training, Medical Students for Choice and the American Medical Women's Association will kick off pilot programs this summer to introduce students to the issues surrounding abortion and other reproductive-health concerns. Medical Students for Choice is sponsoring an internship program that pairs medical students with reproductive-health professionals and gives them a chance to observe and participate in counseling and abortion procedures.

At the same time, the American Medical Women's Association will inaugurate its reproductive clinical elective in July at Columbia University. Students participating in this program will receive training in procedures and issues related to sexually transmitted diseases, contraception, abortion, primary-care infertility, and doctor/patient communication.

After its month-long run at Columbia, the elective course will have a second trial in the fall at the University of Iowa, and the Association will work to get other schools around the nation to offer it.

Curriculum reform "takes a long time," says Jen Schroeder, a third-year medical student at Wright State University who is taking time out from her studies to serve as a Medical Students for Choice intern at the National Abortion Federation and as the reproductive-health intern for the American Medical Women's Association. "We wanted to start some training in the short-term, but we see these as part of the long-term solution, too."