By Felipe on May 05th, 2021. Posted under: 2021, Blog Post
When is the last time you felt hopeful? For many of us, the vaccine rollout has provided great comfort and helped us feel optimistic. Others have been encouraged by news that our favorite small businesses plan to reopen or by connecting with friends and family through creative, socially distant events.
I find hope from the opportunity to lead Medical Students for Choice (MSFC) as Executive Director, and I am inspired every day as I serve alongside a dedicated community of student leaders and partners organizing to create tomorrow’s abortion providers and pro-choice physicians. Our work isn’t possible without the support of individuals like you; please consider donating today.
My experience in the reproductive health, rights, and justice movement over the last twelve years has instilled in me a tremendous appreciation for the power that lies in community. At MSFC, we know that we cannot do this work alone. With your donation and support, we can provide medical students with the training and resources they need to achieve our mission.
MSFC seeks to center the most marginalized in our communities, and we are working to incorporate anti-racism training into our work to hold the needs of people of color front and center. We’ve increased outreach to reproductive justice leaders and organizations to create fluid pathways for collaboration. We are prioritizing expanding who reproductive healthcare looks to serve, centering equity, and reducing the stigma that trans folks often face when trying to access care.
Our community has grown to 235 chapters in 28 countries, broadening our mission’s reach worldwide. Medical students have led our organization’s work since its inception and will continue to inform how we move forward. This mobile force of dedicated student leaders makes our work to create tomorrow’s abortion providers and pro-choice physicians possible.
We continue to expand access to training for student leaders and hope to offer a hybrid of in-person and online training in 2021. While increasing access to training, we remain cognizant of the threats to legal access to abortion that loom. We are actively exploring new opportunities for student leaders to add their voice to defending access to the full range of reproductive healthcare, including abortion care.
I am hopeful about the future because I believe in the power of our advocacy and activism. There’s no stopping us, but to keep the momentum going, we need your support. Donate now to help us dream bigger, increase access to abortion, and connect the dedicated community of pro-choice physicians, abortion providers, and student leaders worldwide.
In solidarity,
Pamela Merritt
Executive Director, Medical Students for Choice
By Felipe on May 03rd, 2021. Posted under: 2021, Blog Post
Charlotte, Toronto:
The pandemic and the virtual pivot have changed a lot for my chapter, but we are lucky in that our existing leadership structure adapts well to our new circumstances. Below is a short summary of how we operate, what works, and what doesn’t.
At our school, many clubs employ the junior- and senior- director model. Essentially, the senior leaders are two second-year students. Early in the school year, they recruit two first-years for the role of junior director. Recruitment takes the form of social media posts, listserv announcements, and hosting a table at the (now virtual) clubs fair. The application is short and anonymized to promote equity. Once selected, the junior directors work closely with the senior leadership to plan, promote, and execute events. Junior directors then graduate to senior directors the following year, and the cycle repeats.
This structure is great because it eases the incoming leadership into the role; mentorship is built-in. Our foursome becomes a close-knit exec team and we all share the responsibilities pretty equally. There is also less pressure to get a ton of numbers – you just need two motivated people with an interest in reproductive justice. The downside of this model is that we don’t actually have membership. Our club is really just the executive squad, as all our programming is open to every student. Nearly every student group at our school is like this. But what we lack in community feel, we try to make up for with thoughtful and engaging programming. We also try to partner with other Canadian chapters where possible to increase participation. I hope this helps other MSFC chapters to consider a similar model!
Nora, Chicago:
We have been fully virtual since mid-March 2020 and all of our recruitment has been online. We have seen a decrease in attendees to our events as serving lunch or dinner on campus was always a major incentive in the past, but it has resulted in more intimate discussions during our events. This academic year, we participated in a virtual Student Activities Fair, our primary recruitment event for incoming M1s. The school held it via virtual Zoom rooms and we prepared a few slides with information on the types of events we have as well as contact information. We also write and send out a monthly newsletter to our members with information on current events, a brief history lesson on reproductive justice, and action items. It is fun to compile and allows our members to see us pop up monthly in their inbox as a reminder we are still here!
We are currently in the process of transitioning our e-board so that M2s can phase out of leadership and focus on Step 1 studying – this also allows us to have multiple e-board elections throughout the academic year (one early in the fall to recruit M1 reps and one in the winter to transition those M1 reps into leadership roles). Progressively transitioning M1 reps gives them the exposure to hit the ground running once they take over leadership roles. Our M1 rep this year in particular has been wonderful about coming up with creative events we can host virtually and spreading excitement about it throughout her class.
Recruitment and involvement are definitely down this year compared to last year, but without our M1 rep, it would be even lower than it already is. Our M1 rep has been crucial to our success this year.
By Felipe on April 19th, 2021. Posted under: 2021, Blog Post
IUD insertion training kit used at UWSOM-Seattle’s virtual workshop.
The University of Washington, School of Medicine (UWSOM) in Seattle recently hosted a completely virtual IUD workshop with 50 students and 10+ physician leaders participating. Our workshop was geared primarily towards MS1 and MS2 pre-clinical students with the goal of increasing their competency and knowledge in the field of reproductive healthcare and justice. We were inspired to host this workshop to increase medical literacy surrounding reproductive care and educate student physicians on barriers that our patients may face while attempting to receive adequate contraceptive counseling. As Roe v. Wade’s stability continues to be threatened, we feel it is important for us as future providers to learn how to protect our patients’ reproductive autonomy.
To plan and host this event, we joined forces with the OB/GYN and Family Medicine Interest Groups on our campus. In creating a collaborative committee of around 10 medical students from each group, we were able to access increased funding, resources, and physician connections. We also utilized workshop supplies from organizations outside of MSFC, since it wouldn‘t have been financially feasible for us to send out supplies with return shipping. We reached out to several clinics, pharmaceutical companies, and OB/GYN and Family Medicine residency programs within the University of Washington system to ask for supply donations. We acquired a total of 30 Paragard and 30 Mirena practice IUDs, as well as 35 uterus models through the UW Family Planning Clinic. We utilized MSFC Student Activism Funding and Family Medicine Interest Group funds to send out materials to participants.
The event was approximately 60 minutes. The first 30 minutes consisted of a presentation from two of UW’s wonderful Family Planning physicians who spoke about contraceptive options, barriers to access, our role as providers, and best practices for inclusive contractive counseling (including for LGBTQ+ patients, homeless patients, and patients without insurance). The second 30 minutes were conducted in Zoom breakout rooms with one physician assisting 4-5 students with proper IUD insertion and answering questions surrounding contraception, reproductive justice, and lived experiences while working with patients. After the workshop, we sent out a feedback form for student and physician participants to complete to better help us structure workshops in the future.
As UWSOM is a regional medical school, comprising the five states of the WWAMI region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho), our next goal is to expand this workshop throughout our entire region. As reproductive access looks much different in Wyoming vs. Alaska vs. Washington, it is imperative that all student physicians within the UWSOM system are given the same opportunity to increase their knowledge surrounding inclusive contraceptive care. Next steps for our collective at the UWSOM Seattle cohort look like understanding the nuances and challenges of hosting this event on a broader, five-state scale.
The best suggestion we have for hosting a large event virtually that requires heavy physician presence and materials to be dispersed (while enforcing social distancing guidelines) is to collaborate. Expanding our team beyond our MSFC leaders directly led to the success of our virtual workshop. We were only able to host this event through our collaboration with the Family Medicine and OB/GYN Interest Groups. In bringing together more medical students passionate about reproductive justice and access, we were able to leverage a collective of resources, brain power, and student ingenuity, as well as build a stronger community of medical providers passionate about upholding reproductive autonomy. We look forward to our continued collaboration as we work to provide this educational opportunity to medical students across the WWAMI region!
By Felipe on April 12th, 2021. Posted under: 2021, Blog Post
From April 11 through April 17, Medical Students for Choice is proud to amplify and participate in the fourth annual Black Maternal Health Week.
The Black Maternal Health Week campaign is led by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, and it includes opportunities to raise awareness, take action, and build community. You can learn more about Black Maternal Health Week here, and by following the #BMHW21 hashtag on various social media platforms.
I am mindful that this year’s Black Maternal Health Week takes place while Derek Chauvin is on trial for the murder of George Floyd, and that witnesses reported George Floyd called out for his mother during the assault. [1]
I am mindful that just yesterday police shot and killed Daunte Wright, a Black man, near Minneapolis, and that Wright had called his mother during the traffic stop. She was allegedly talking to him when she heard scuffling and then the call ended. [2]
And I am mindful that many of us are also mourning the loss of Dominique Lucious, a Black trans woman murdered in Springfield, MO. Black trans women continue to face alarming rates of violence and murder. They and all who love and cherish them carry the weight of that every day. [3]
This Black Maternal Health Week, I’m centering Black mamas who have been denied the human right to parent their children in safe and sustainable communities. We must acknowledge the physical and emotional toll reproductive oppression takes on Black communities and Black mamas, and our organizing must include working to dismantle the systems that perpetuate it.
In solidarity,
Pamela Merritt
—
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/george-floyds-mother-not-there-he-used-her-as-sacred-invocation
- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56714346
- https://www.ky3.com/2021/04/10/family-member-of-transgender-woman-killed-in-springfield-shooting-says-she-was-a-strong-and-courageous-person/
By Felipe on March 29th, 2021. Posted under: 2021, Blog Post
First published in the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Kern Institute Transformational Times. Edited by Eileen Peterson.
The need to go all-virtual this year due to COVID presented a challenge for The Medical College of Wisconsin’s chapter of Medical Students for Choice (MCW MSFC), a club based on building knowledge and connections to provide comprehensive reproductive care. Instead of holding back, MCW MSFC’s executive board (M2s Laura Grogan, Elizabeth Panther and Madeleine Sookdeo) adapted and leveraged this time as an opportunity to engage students virtually and expand the organization. In September, the loss of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG), a leader and icon in the reproductive rights, proved to be a particularly galvanizing moment for our chapter. Undoubtedly, the subsequent replacement of RBG with someone against abortion access has increased our engagement and motivation here at MCW MSFC.
MCW MSFC President Laura Grogan, left, and MCW MSFC Treasurer Elizabeth Panther, right.
Through partnerships with both local and national organizations, we hosted the following inspiring events this fall:
- Legal Restrictions to Abortion Access in Wisconsin with Mel Barnes, JD from Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, co-hosted with the University of Wisconsin -Madison School of Medicine and Public Health chapter of MSFC (UW-Madison MSFC)
- Reproductive Advocacy with Sara Finger, Director of Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health, co-hosted with UW-Madison MSFC
- Abortion Ethics and Abortion Access with Katie Watson JD, author of Scarlet A: The Ethics, Law, and Politics of Ordinary Abortion, co-hosted with MCW’s Bioethics Interest Group
The use of a virtual platform facilitated easier coordination with speakers outside of the Milwaukee area. Additionally, MCW MSFC and UW-Madison MSFC joined forces on multiple events this fall, largely thanks to the ease of virtual coordination. Internal and external collaborations allowed us to widen our platform and increase medical student exposure to the importance of abortion care access and advocacy.
In addition to hosting exhilarating speakers this fall, we wanted to foster a greater sense of togetherness during these distanced times. Back in September, our treasurer, Elizabeth Panther, found the funds for us to host a virtual craft night where we painted vulvas while listening to a themed playlist curated by our members. We also facilitated a series of book club discussions where peers openly discussed the book Scarlet A prior to our event with Katie Watson. We are so glad these social events could bring together otherwise distanced students in a low-stress environment.
Moving forward, we have brought six amazing M1 liaisons onto our chapter board: Raquel Valdes, Alli Whitaker, Kate Tyson, Ashlyn Elftmann, Kole Binger, and Danielle Slaughter. By bringing these MCW leaders on board early, we hoped to better understand the M1 class’ needs during these unique times. Our M1 liaisons have blown us away, and their efforts and presence have been vital in our ability to recruit many new members and continue to put on inspiring event and activities.
We have also started to promote MCW MSFC on social media, thanks to the efforts of Maddie Sookdeo, our community outreach chair. Check out our Instagram (@mcw_msfc)! Social media has made it easier to co-host events and cross promote within MCW and beyond. Through this platform, we have connected with local and cross-campus members, and we have been better able to share international resources from MSFC.
We are thrilled to share that our group has been fortunate to expand from 32 members to 104 members this year. The enthusiasm around MSFC has motivated us to continue planning and hosting more events this spring, which include:
- Why We Provide Panel of Milwaukee abortion providers
- MSFC Book Club continued with Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts
- Virtual 5k for Roe v Wade 48th Anniversary with Rosalind Franklin Medical School
- Providing Inclusive Reproductive Care with Dr. Jessica Francis and Dr. Jamie Buth from the Inclusion Clinic, co-hosted with MCW LGBTPM and MCW CARES
- …And more!
MCW MSFC has tried to make the most out of these distanced times, and we are so grateful for our members who have helped us do just that! MSFC is filled with incredible patient advocates, and we can’t wait to see where this momentum leads to in the future.
By Felipe on March 13th, 2019. Posted under: 2019, Blog Post
After the 2017 Conference on Family Planning in Philadelphia, I received an email from one of my Canadian students, Stephanie. In the email she said what an amazing time that she had but how she wished there would be a space for the Canadian students to have a conference all their own. Out of the 419 students who attended our conference that year, 42 of them came from Canada. Although the sessions and the skills workshops are applicable anywhere, all of our providers came in with a U.S. perspective on abortion which is vastly different than in Canada.
In Canada, abortion is not in the criminal code. It is one of the only countries in the world not to. That means all of the TRAP laws, abortion restrictions, and term limit laws that are being passed in droves in the U.S. can’t happen in Canada. However, Canada shares our provider crisis. Most providers are centered in urban centers leaving the rural areas neglected when it comes to abortion care. There is a mandatory ultrasound restriction for providers to prescribe Mifegymiso (the Canadian brand name for the two medications used for medical abortion), severely limiting access considering most clinics do not have ultrasound machines on-site. The lack of providers in rural areas largely affects First Nations women who cannot obtain abortion care, especially since Mifegymiso has only been recently been approved in Canada.
Our Canadian students saw a need for abortion training so they could provide quality care to their patients, no matter where they are located. It took almost a year of planning with the students from Northern Ontario School of Medicine and the University of Ottawa, which hosted the event. Together these students did a tremendous amount of work and preparation: what sessions to have, how to recruit attendees, how to feed everyone, and make it affordable. The end result was a daylong conference that filled up well before the registration deadline.
In the end 60 students registered for the Canadian Symposium on Family Planning, with 10 on the waiting list. On Saturday January 12th, 2019, 60 students attended sessions on values clarification, abortion in Canada, medical and surgical abortions, abortion and mental health, hands-on training workshops, and so much more. The students started the day off with their values clarification session which asked them to dig into how they felt about a variety of topics that happen when providing abortions. They debated, asked questions, and listened to each other; that pattern carried on for the rest of the day. The providers that facilitated the sessions were insightful and truly opened the minds of the students.
Three students brought posters of their research to share with those attending the Symposium. A student from U British Columbia’s Northern Medical Program presented preliminary research about family planning services in northern British Columbia. Another student from U British Columbia presented about “Challenges in Offering STI Screening Among Northern BC Indigenous Communities”. The student from U Toronto presented about the PREVENT project protocol that uses technology to provide contraceptive counselling to those who lack access to contraception. Each of these students has been working on unique ways to understand and address reproductive health disparities in their communities. The Symposium created an opportunity for them to share their research with a group of people equally excited about progressing family planning priorities in Canada.
As the Symposium came to a close and everyone was winding down from their sessions and talking, it was evident that it was a day well spent for all. Providing these opportunities for our chapters is what makes MSFC great because we work to enrich the education and medical school experiences of each of our members. I feel optimistic about the future of abortion in Canada and in the capable hands of these 60 motivated students.
