By Felipe on February 27th, 2023. Posted under: 2022, Featured Article
Attention all medical students! Medical Students for Choice just released some awesome new merch that not only looks great but also supports an important cause.
MSFC is dedicated to providing abortion training and advocating for reproductive health care for medical students, regardless of bans and restrictions. With our new merch, you (and your friends and family) can support our work while celebrating the achievement of matching to a residency or fellowship training position.
When you purchase our merch, a percentage of the proceeds go towards funding abortion training and advocacy. This means that you’re not only getting some cool new gear, but you’re also contributing to a great cause that’s helping to ensure all future physicians receive abortion and family planning education and training.
So, what kind of merch is available? You can choose from a range of items, including t-shirts, hoodies, and mugs, all featuring the MSFC logo and a message of support for reproductive rights. The designs are stylish and versatile, so you can wear them not just to celebrate Match Day but also in your everyday life. Shop now!
By Felipe on February 13th, 2023. Posted under: 2023, Blog Post, Featured Article
At Texas A&M University, Ella Nonni, a third-year medical student, Elaine Avshman, a second-year medical student, Akshaya Santhanaraj, a second-year medical student, Uma Reddy, a first-year medical student, Kadambari Suri, a first-year medical student, Diana McKinnon, a fourth-year medical student, Divya Gupta, a second-year medical student developed a reproductive health elective that gives medical students an opportunity to understand and discuss abortion care, family planning, and reproductive health.
Read the syllabus and this interview to learn how they developed this course, and tips to help MSFC Members initiate similar successful projects.
How did creating an elective in family planning/abortion care get started?
The idea started to form when the state of Texas started its restrictive abortion practices. There was a realization that Texas medical students would be seeing less (to no) family planning and abortion care on clerkship. So, there was an emphasis on trying to get exposure to this material and knowledge in the pre-clerkship space. We then surveyed the student body and found there was an interest out there in reproductive health topics.
What were some challenges you faced in this process and how did you overcome them?
We held several meetings with Deans and faculty course directors. Some were enthusiastic about this concept and others held concerns. The truth is – it is unfortunately nerve racking to present some of these topics in such a polarized environment and knowledge about medicine and medical procedures has been politicized. When we faced some pushback, we respectfully explained our goals, stuck to the data, showed how larger well-known organizations (ex ACOG) held up these topics as essential to medical students’ knowledge base, and never shut a door. We welcomed and held space for the concerns, and went back time and again to reengage on the topic.
What could this elective mean for medical students?
This elective is an opportunity for our medical students to learn more about family planning, reproductive health, ethical decision making – it is meant to be informative but also give students a space to talk about “taboo” topics and get some evidence-based understanding of abortion care/family planning/reproductive justice.
What would your advice be to students who are interested in introducing a similar course at their medical school?
A good place to start is a general student body survey – showing there is interest is powerful to decision makers. Create a well-designed outline of what you want to create, ask for feedback, welcome concerns, and stay respectful and thoughtful that people’s concerns and fears are legitimate. Just because something is scary or hard doesn’t mean it is not worth doing.
MSFC believes that abortion and family planning training should be a standard part of all medical school curricula. Visit our Curriculum Reform webpage to learn more about how chapters have successfully advocated for the inclusion of abortion and reproductive health education into their curricula, and to find resources to support your chapter’s work.
By Felipe on January 23rd, 2023. Posted under: 2023, Blog Post, Featured Article, News and Views
By Sarah McNeilly, second-year medical student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Catherine Stratis, second-year medical student at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Carly Tymm, second-year medical student at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Kimberly Graybeal, second-year medical student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Anne Lally, second-year medical student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and the rest of the amazing medical student team who helped work on the booklet!
A special thank you to Daniel Baboolal, Alexis Zachem, Vivian Kim, Grace Pipes, Emily Rutland, Maria Schur, Irene Tang, Emma Tucker, and Hana Flaxman for their editorial and fundraising efforts!
This past year, a group of MSFC students from NYC-area medical schools joined forces to form “MSFC NYC” and organized the “Future Docs for Abortion Access Fundraiser” to support patients seeking abortions.
Alongside our fundraising efforts, we produced a zine/booklet, entitled “Accessing Abortion in NYC: A Guide for Medical Students, by Medical Students,” to provide medical students with knowledge on abortion and access to abortion care. We hope it will fill the educational gaps that countless medical students in both NYC and across the country face in the post-Roe era.
As students in New York, a state with one of the strongest legal protections for abortion, we benefit from training in a place where abortion remains legal and at institutions where abortion is still appropriately performed and taught. For that reason, we felt it was that much more important to continue helping our local communities access abortion care and to support pregnant people in states with complete or near-total abortion bans that have begun taking effect. While many may feel helpless in the wake of this decision, it is crucial to recognize that as medical students we can and should advocate for a more equitable and just future.
MSFC believes that abortion and family planning training should be an essential part of all medical school curricula. To access the booklet, click here.
The booklet is a comprehensive guide on the clinical, legal, and social aspects of providing and accessing abortion care in New York City.
Learn below how the booklet was developed to provide accessible abortion education for medical students regardless of where they live, and how medical students can adapt it for their communities.
How did the idea of creating a booklet start?
- After the Dobbs decision, MSFC chapters across the country began communicating nearly daily to discuss opportunities to collaborate. We knew that as New Yorkers, our abortion rights and access would thankfully remain preserved post-Roe, at least in the immediate future, so our earliest meetings focused on how we could simultaneously lend our support to patients and providers in abortion-restricted areas of the country while remaining involved in our local communities.
- Developing educational resources felt like a natural place to start: it provided us with the opportunity to fill curricular gaps for fellow medical students, while potentially helping patients living in or traveling to NYC navigate abortion care.
- Our guide was ultimately written “by medical students, for medical students” for multiple reasons. First and foremost, we felt it was imperative to ensure that our peers had access to robust, accurate abortion education that covered complex medical, legal, and social issues, in line with MSFC’s mission “to create tomorrow’s abortion providers and pro-choice physicians.” Second, we knew that our institutional affiliations gave us built-in distribution networks that would allow us to reach hundreds of students. Third, we recognized the potential downstream effects of medical education: that knowledgeable medical students would become knowledgeable doctors, who could reach countless patients in the future.
What were some of the challenges you faced in this process and how did you overcome them?
- Given that our primary audience was fellow medical students, we wanted our writing to be the right mix of engaging, accessible, and informative. We felt it was imperative for future clinicians to engage rigorously with medical, legal, social, and ethical information on abortion—the latest data, the highest-quality articles — and to distill the most salient points in a sea of misinformation.
- We overcame these obstacles by conducting an extensive editing process. The booklet underwent multiple rounds of peer editing before receiving feedback from physicians and educators, which ultimately ensured that our booklet was comprehensive, accurate, and engaging. It was a labor of love, but well worth the wait.
How did you approach coalition-building, and how did this coalition and the booklet shape your idea of medical student advocacy?
- Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, several MSFC chapters in NYC came together with the idea that as medical students we can and should advocate for a more equitable and just future. We formed “MSFC NYC”, a local coalition of medical students working together to support abortion education access. Being from different medical schools, we could combine the diverse perspectives, resources, faculty relationships, and physician networks from across our institutions, which augmented our ability to enact change. We knew there was strength in numbers, and were determined to work together towards our goals.
- As part of this collaboration, we had two goals: 1) collectively fundraise for abortion access in the month of August 2022, and 2) develop and broaden abortion education throughout NYC. By spreading the word with our medical schools, friends, and family members, we collectively raised $20,105 to support two abortion access organizations: the National Network of Abortion Funds and The Brigid Alliance, both of which strive to remove financial and logistical barriers to abortion care.
- On the education front, despite 25% of pregnancies ending in abortion worldwide, abortion is starkly absent from medical school curricula with half of all medical schools in the US giving no formal training in abortion or only a single lecture. To start to address these education gaps, we developed our abortion education and access booklet. At the same time, we also met with abortion providers around NYC, hosting several talks across our NYC schools on a series of abortion topics including medical-legal partnerships in a post-Roe era and abortion in marginalized populations. We even hosted a tabling event in a park in NYC where we shared our fundraiser with the greater public and spread knowledge on MSFC’s abortion education and advocacy efforts. Most recently, our collaboration has been working with legislatures to draw support for recent bills that allocate funds for OB GYN residents in abortion-restrictive states to receive training on abortion in NYC and develop shield laws for NYC providers sending abortion pills into restricted states.
- With these examples of advocacy through our MSFC NYC teamwork, we hope that our coalition-building efforts inspire other MSFC groups to recognize the power of collective action and create tangible progress within our communities. During this unprecedented time for abortion access in the US, medical students can play an important role as advocates to support our future patients and protect their rights to reproductive health care, including abortion.
The MSFC NYC coalition collectively raised $20,105 to support the National Network of Abortion Funds and The Brigid Alliance.
How can other medical students use our booklet?
- We wrote this booklet to provide all medical students with reliable, accessible abortion education that honors its complex sociopolitical history. Ultimately, we hope to equip our readers with the understanding that abortion is a foundational, essential part of reproductive healthcare and the tools to support anyone in need—be it their patients, their friends, or themselves. We hope this book can be shared widely by our medical student peers as the fundamental abortion information documented in it can be helpful for all individuals.
- While our guide did focus on accessing abortion in our local New York City community, we believe that it can and should be adapted in other places, informed by local restrictions. All medical students, regardless of where they attend, deserve comprehensive abortion education—and until there is a national curricular standard for abortion education, student-developed tools like ours can help bridge the gap. That is why we are so thrilled to be part of the international MSFC community, which allows us to forge connections with chapters across the US and the world to work collectively around advancing reproductive justice.
Students of the MSFC NYC coalition at fundraising event.
By Felipe on December 19th, 2022. Posted under: 2022, Blog Post, Featured Article
Sara Sotiraks, Ciara Black, Sara Bocchinfuso, and Madeline Chidiac of Trinity College Dublin developed a student survey that could potentially identify gaps or inconsistencies in family planning curricula and teaching in Ireland. Read this interview to learn how they developed this project, and for tips to help MSFC members initiate similar successful projects.
How did this go from a school-wide project to a country-wide project?
We initially submitted the proposal to the School of Medicine and the heads of the OBGYN department. From there it got passed on to the General Practice department, which led to the addition of two 2-hour seminars on Termination of Pregnancy and LGBTQ+ healthcare. The lecturers who delivered these seminars approached us with the idea to replicate the survey we did across all of the medical schools in Ireland. We have developed the student survey further from our initial one, with slight modifications and additions to the questions. We are also going to survey staff as well, to map out what teaching is currently taking place, find out what challenges they may have faced in implementing such teaching, and to compare the staff perspective on the curriculum with the students.
What could this study mean for medical schools across Ireland?
This study could potentially identify gaps or inconsistencies in teaching across the country. If this is the case, it could provide the evidence base and framework for standardized curriculum enhancements to be made in every school, to ensure graduates from each school in the country are receiving the same curriculum content.
Do you find that having med student support increases responsiveness from admin?
Yes. Showing that these changes are wanted by a large majority of current students by using real data collected from these students strongly supports the need for urgent changes.
What were some of the challenges you faced in this process and how did you overcome them?
Initially the challenge was lack of response from the school. We received communication that the proposal will be considered, but were not given any clear timeline or action plan for when/how this would be done. We continued to follow up with the school and were assured that a curriculum review was underway, and that departments had the freedom to modify/add content if they wish. Once we got to our General Practice module, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that the proposal resulted in some positive change! Our school’s curriculum review is still underway (this process takes place every 10 years or so) and we have received word that the proposal will be included in the upcoming curriculum revisions.
What advice would you give to someone looking to start a similar study in their region?
A few things:
- Look into getting ethics approval if you want to administer a survey, so that you may have the option to publish the findings.
- Find staff members to support you. They are a great connection to have and can provide advice/guidance through the ethics application process. If you are applying to your school’s ethics committee, you also may need a staff supervisor.
- Target your sample population. We surveyed students from all years. This was great for the opinion section of the survey, to find out what teaching students from all years would like to see, but for the portion of our survey which assessed the current curriculum it was challenging for students in the early years to comment as they would not have had teaching in these areas yet or know what teaching they are due to receive later on. Figure out what your survey focus is and target your survey population accordingly.
MSFC believes that abortion and family planning training should be a standard part of all medical school curricula. Visit our Curriculum Reform webpage to learn more about how chapters have successfully advocated for the inclusion of abortion and reproductive health education into their curricula, and to find resources to support your chapter’s work.
School of Medicine at the University of Dublin, Trinity College
By Felipe on April 27th, 2022. Posted under: Blog Post, Featured Article
This session on providing safe abortion in rural and low-resource settings explores service delivery bottlenecks and discusses ways to expand access to safe abortion by highlighting innovative success stories enabling this access.
Francis Makiya is a medical doctor currently working as the District Medical Officer for Mwanza District in Malawi. He has interests in strengthening health systems, health rights, and policy advocacy. He is a board member of the International Network for the Reduction of Abortion Discrimination and Stigma (inroads). He has been volunteering with the Coalition for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion (COPUA) in Malawi for the past eight years advocating for change to reform restrictive abortion laws. He served as the founding chairperson for Medical Students for Choice (MSFC) – Malawi chapter.
Francis Makiya, District Medical Officer for Mwanza District, Malawi
In Malawi, abortion is legally restricted. There is only one medical school with around 700 medical doctors working in government serving 19 million people. Maternal mortality is high at 439 deaths by 100,000 live births, and abortion-related death is among the top 5 causes of maternal death. Misoprostol is available; however, accessing a prescription is a challenge and requires secret referral systems where private clinics and NGOs conceal the actual reason for the prescription.
Providing safe abortion remains a challenge in rural and low-resource settings like Sub-Saharan Africa, where less than 97% of abortions performed are unsafe. Rural and low resource settings are typically poverty-stricken and have poor health systems and weak governing institutions. Individual, community, and systemic factors often limit access to safe abortion.
Advocacy in rural and low-resource settings requires influencing local leaders and decision-makers and building an environment conducive to enabling people to exercise their rights by changing laws and policies. Collaborating and networking with grassroots movements and local and regional organizations is crucial to accessing technology and networks. The Harm Reduction model is a valuable tool to reach underserved rural communities and reduce public health risks as seen through telemedicine examples include HowToUseAbortionPill, Women on Web, Hesperian Health Guides, Aunty Jane Hotline (0800-721530), and the Ipas Health Link.
By Felipe on March 15th, 2022. Posted under: Blog Post, Featured Article
As in 2020, in 2021 the COVID-19 restrictions continued to negatively impact MSFC’s capacity to administer the Abortion Training Funding Programs—the Reproductive Health Externship (RHE) for medical students and the Training to Competence Externship (TCE) for residents. Despite many disruptions caused by travel restrictions and other safety considerations, a total of 41 medical students participated in the RHE and 13 residents completed the TCE program. This volume of participation is on par with 2020.
These 54 participants came from 41 schools and training programs, and were able to schedule their externship placement at one of the 28 host facilities that accepted participants this year.
Here is what some of the participants said after completing their training experience:
I really loved this experience a lot. The patients and providers were very nice and focused on training me. They asked me about my goals on the first day and focused on meeting them throughout the training. I worked a lot on my hands on skills, and I always felt like I was needed around the clinic. The patients were great, and I had a very amazing experience – definitely my best rotation in general. I felt very inspired to continue this type of training and work in my future career.2021 RHE Participant
It was an incredible experience. I got more hands on opportunities in 2 weeks than I had in 2 months of medical school. The doctors were amazing and since it was a small family practice, I felt more like a team member than a student hovering in the corner.2021 RHE Participant
[The RHE] It is a unique experience that most students are not exposed to during their medical school training. There is so much to learn from not only the medical aspect but also from the team work amongst doctors, social workers and other healthcare professionals that is essential in providing safe and competent patient care.2021 RHE Participant
Program Impact
To evaluate the outcomes of these programs we ask applicants to complete a survey before and after their training, here are some of the highlights from 2021’s evaluation.
Program participants were asked to indicate how knowledgeable they felt about key abortion provision and reproductive health topics, on both the pre- and post-externship surveys. Results show an increase towards “very knowledgeable” on all categories:
Intention to Provide Abortion Services
Another topic we explored among our participants was their intention to provide medical and/or surgical abortion services in their future practice. Although this was already high on the pre-externship survey, we see a slight increase on intention to provide on the post-survey results.
Additional Training
On the post-RHE survey, participants were asked, on a scale of 1 through 5—with 1 being not likely and 5 being very likely—, how likely were they to pursue additional abortion training? The average response was 4.7.
By Felipe on December 17th, 2021. Posted under: 2021, Blog Post, Featured Article
Many of the recent abortion restrictions limit access to abortion training and education, making MSFC’s work more essential than ever. MSFC is working to create well-trained, empathetic physicians who can center the patient experience, reduce health inequities, and offer the full range of comprehensive reproductive health. Check out the videos below to learn about how MSFC is working to ensure medical students can access abortion training regardless of the state they go to medical school in; to create more expansive educational opportunities and provide expertise and perspective to all students.
By Felipe on November 16th, 2021. Posted under: 2021, Blog Post, Featured Article
First published in September 8, 2016.
As a first year medical student, I let my doubts get in the way of my education. I was intrigued by the idea of abortion education, but I missed out on Medical Students for Choice’s 2014 Conference on Family Planning (CoFP) because I wasn’t confident enough to make the trip alone. I worried that I would be judged for going and that my safety might be compromised.
That changed after becoming president of my school’s MSFC chapter. I felt compelled to learn more about abortion and family planning. I didn’t want to just say that I supported a woman’s right to choose; I really wanted to understand the issues surrounding reproductive healthcare. Together with my fellow leader, Claire Meikle, we dove head first into the world of Medical Students for Choice.
The author and her co-student leader.
We began the year by attending the 2015 Conference on Family Planning in Philadelphia, PA, and it was such an amazing experience! From the moment we arrived, we were greeted with open arms and were already known by name from our previous MSFC leadership involvement. We heard from amazing speakers from all over the world (we even made our moms attend so we could attend *every*single* breakout session!). We connected with leaders of other chapters and learned some amazing content that we then brought back to improve our own chapter. At the conference, I was able to not only learn more about reproductive health care, but also gain a better understanding of my own beliefs. I was encouraged to push myself out of my comfort zone to continue my abortion education. I took all that I had learned from the conference and all of the questions that I still had and carried them with me to the Abortion Training Institute later that year. Since then, I developed an entire Family Planning course for our school and am currently leading a research project on family planning education for medical students.
No matter how far you are into your medical education, you will gain so much from MSFC’s conference! From the guest speakers to the hands-on training sessions, there is something for everyone. No matter your hesitation, fear not—the CoFP is a safe and welcoming place to start or expand your family planning education. (Plus, it’s a great excuse to travel!)
While I know that medical school can be overwhelming and there’s never enough free time, attending MSFC’s Conference on Family Planning is a valuable experience that is worth the time away from campus.
Are you convinced yet? Ready to register? Sign up here!
By Felipe on November 08th, 2021. Posted under: 2021, Blog Post, Featured Article
Last month, we heard from Kizza Blair, a fifth-year medical student from Gulu University his account of the East African Regional Meeting. “We were trained on legal aspects of reproductive health, the life of an advocate, primary health coverage, healthcare in a resource-limited setting, and dynamics of family planning and safe abortion. Lastly, we had an opportunity to have a hands-on experience with Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) for surgical abortion using melons and pawpaw role-playing for female reproductive organs.”
The student-led planning committee hosted this regional meeting for students from 5 countries to come together and learn from sexual and reproductive health experts from throughout Africa. All participants were asked to complete a survey before the conference, recording their self-assessed knowledge on SRH topics and their attitudes towards abortion and patients seeking abortion. After the completion of the regional meeting, participants filled out another survey. The changes in participants’ knowledge and attitudes were astounding!
Attitudes were measured on a five-point scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree) using the value statements from IPPF’s “How to Educate about Abortion: a Guide.” We asked five questions to measure their attitudes. Responses on the post-meeting survey indicate that through education and conversation about abortion, participants moved toward a more accepting outlook on abortion on all five questions.
The East African Regional Meeting was a great success and we are so proud of the students who organized and administered this program!
By Felipe on October 25th, 2021. Posted under: 2021, Blog Post, Featured Article
Medical Students for Choice wrapped up another successful Abortion Training Institute (ATI) season earlier this fall. These virtual ATIs allow highly motivated students to learn many aspects of abortion in an intense, small group learning environment. Students learn about the clinical aspects of first-trimester abortions, examine their own biases and values, and hear from abortion providers about their experiences, challenges, and motivations. Fifty students from 46 schools were accepted. Each student received a training kit in the mail to participate in an Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) workshop to gain facility and familiarity with the equipment.
Reproductive health is a vital part of medicine (and life), no matter what specialty you go into. Unfortunately, most medical school education is still very limited on reproductive health, despite how often it is encountered in practice, which leads to confusion and misinformation, even amongst health care professionals. These classes have been phenomenal in bridging that gap.ATI Participant
Students walk away from the ATIs feeling more knowledgeable about abortion-related topics. Based on the results of pre-ATI and post-ATI tests, students reported being significantly more knowledgeable around the techniques of first-trimester procedural and medical abortion, identifying products of conception, and legal restrictions in the U.S.
When looking at the proportion of students who rated themselves a 4 or 5 on a 1-5 knowledge scale (1 being not competent and 5 being very competent), all changes in knowledge were statistically significant with a p-value of <.0001.
Even among this highly self-selected group of participants, the ATI clarified and solidified these students’ intention to provide abortions in their future careers. For students that indicated future provision was unlikely, their desire to enter a specialty further removed from reproductive health care was the main reason given.
We asked participants to indicate how much of an impact the factors would have on their ability to provide abortions. Below are the percentages of respondents who indicated factors would have a high impact. As you can see, anti-choice legislation was the factor students believed would have the highest impact on their careers.
For me, a big part of medicine is social justice. Becoming an abortion provider is an incredible way I can fulfill that mission. MSFC is helping me reach that goal by providing clinical training, tools, and resources not included in my curriculum.ATI Participant
