Conference Program

Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) is a safe and easy method of providing early surgical abortion. It is also used for miscarriage management, treatment of failed medical abortion, or endometrial biopsy. MVA provides a low-tech alternative to electric vacuum aspiration that is gentler, quieter and used throughout the world in low resource settings. The session provides a hands-on learning opportunity using papayas as a uterine model.

Join abortion providers as they share their stories in an informal dialogue. Hear why they chose to provide abortion as part of their practice; where they practice; what they find meaningful and rewarding about their work; what is challenging about their work; and if they have been harassed or targeted by anti-choice groups/individuals and how they deal with it.

As more states restrict or ban abortion, preventing access to necessary care will threaten the health and lives of pregnant individuals. This session will review potential threats to the health and lives of pregnant women, including pre-existing health conditions as well as obstetric complications that can be health/life threatening. Specific circumstances in which abortion may be necessary to preserve health and life will be reviewed, highlighting the dangers posed by abortion bans. Strategies to minimize these risks will be discussed.

Contraceptive technologies available to users have constantly increased over the past five decades, with more efficient and more convenient methods coming to market. However, short-term methods remain popular, Emergency contraceptive use remains high, and ‘natural methods’ and ‘apps’ are becoming popular. While they have some ‘pros’, these methods carry higher typical use failure rates. In a Post-Roe world, contraceptive failures have much higher consequences, and providers have a responsibility to guide users in choosing methods that will protect them better against unplanned pregnancies.

In spite of the Dobbs decision, people continue to have unwanted pregnancies and to seek ways to have abortions. Prior to Roe, women with unwanted pregnancies who could not find a skilled provider had few safe options. The advent of abortion pills has totally changed the landscape as people obtain abortion pills outside of the clinical setting. This workshop will share what we know about the prevalence of SMA in the USA, the international context for the practice, how to support and not criminalize patients who present after SMA and encourage a discussion of what participants think about women taking abortion into their own hands.

Bayer cordially invites you to attend: A Virtual Peer to Peer IUD Educational Program. This program will review clinical information and placement steps for Mirena® (levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system) 52mg, Kyleena® (levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system) 19.5mg, and Skyla® (Levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system) 13.5mg and is intended for US participants. Educational kits with materials that can be used during the program will be mailed to enrolled participants.

Join abortion providers as they share their stories in an informal dialogue. Hear why they chose to provide abortion as part of their practice; where they practice; what they find meaningful and rewarding about their work; what is challenging about their work; and if they have been harassed or targeted by anti-choice groups/individuals and how they deal with it.

This session will talk about how movement building propels the realization of the provision of safe abortion in low-resource or rural settings. It will explore the tenets of movement building for the provision of safe abortion using case studies from the global south. Furthermore, it will highlight the good practices and key lessons learnt from movement building in an effort to make safe abortion a reality for people from low-resource or rural settings.

Abortion is now illegal in many states, which will inevitably exacerbate health disparities based on race, gender, and socioeconomic background across the country. As this hostile legal environment continues to develop, what is the role of medical students and future doctors in advocating for reproductive justice? This session will explore this question from a grassroots organizing, academic, and health provider perspectives. The discussion will focus on advocacy efforts for Black and Indigenous people and other people of color, and highlight different forms in which medical professionals can continue to advocate for reproductive justice by providing accessible, affirming, and high quality reproductive health care to marginalized communities.

Telehealth encounters for abortion provision has become increasingly common as a result of technological advancement, the COVID-19 pandemic, and an increasing number of abortion restrictions. Telehealth is a valuable tool for improving abortion access, but this modality also requires skills distinct from those used for in-person encounters. This workshop will focus on reviewing evidence-based protocols for no-test medication abortion via telehealth and review strategies to help medical student and resident trainees thrive in telehealth visits.

The goal of this session is to provide information on abortion training available in ob-gyn and family medicine residencies in states where abortion remains legal and provide guidance for residency applicants interviewing at programs in states where abortion is illegal or significantly restricted. The session will end with a Q&A dialogue between panelists and attendees.

This session aims to connect the dots between abortion bans and criminalization. It will challenge the notion of the benevolent state/ ”reasonable” bans/ “good prosecutors/cops” and remind the audience that we do not live in equitable environments, our systems are not built for the marginalized, and we will not experience the harms of these systems equally. A vision for something better will be outlined.

This session will explore with participants the different ways that medical education can create, exacerbate and address abortion-related stigma. Participants will reflect on the different ways they have seen abortion stigmatized during the course of their medical education and the impacts that this has on abortion and wider health care. Participants will be equipped with advocacy tools to develop plans to challenge and change medical education that stigmatizes abortion. They will be introduced to a bank of resources that can be used to work alone or with others to advocate for (and deliver) comprehensive and non-stigmatizing education on abortion now and throughout their careers.

Disabled people face unique barriers to accessing reproductive health care—barriers that are compounded by the ongoing legacy of eugenics and reproductive coercion in the United States. Drawing on lessons from advocacy and original research, this session will explore the influence of ableism on disabled people’s sexual and reproductive health and abortion access. We will discuss how providers can reduce barriers disabled people face to accessing abortion, address bias, and facilitate disabled patients’ decision-making with a broader recognition of reproductive autonomy and coercion. The goal is to discuss how the medical doctors of the future can work to recognize and address the impacts of ableism in our healthcare system. We hope to train physicians to empower and respect their disabled patients and advocate for policy change at the community, health system, state and federal levels.

Health care providers, including medical students, have a unique role to play in ensuring policy is informed by medicine and science and advancing access to comprehensive reproductive and sexual health care for all. As future physicians you will have a unique opportunity to leverage the privilege your white coat provides to center those you care for in your work and advocacy. As students you have a much needed voice that can inform medical education institutions and organizations around interest and importance of physician advocacy as part of training. Join Physicians for Reproductive Health experts for a session on Advocacy, Media, and Testimony 101. In this session you will have an opportunity to work on the skills necessary to advocate before your local, state, and federal elected officials, hear tips on engaging and influencing the public narrative through traditional as well as social media, and try hands on practice writing and submitting testimony on law and policy you care about. Participants will discuss the unique role of physicians in advocating for reproductive health and have the opportunity to choose hands on activities to practice ranging from letters to the editor, social media content, and legislative testimony.

Bayer cordially invites you to attend: A Virtual Peer to Peer IUD Educational Program. This program will review clinical information and placement steps for Mirena® (levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system) 52mg, Kyleena® (levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system) 19.5mg, and Skyla® (Levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system) 13.5mg and is intended for US participants. Educational kits with materials that can be used during the program will be mailed to enrolled participants.

Join abortion providers as they share their stories in an informal dialogue. Hear why they chose to provide abortion as part of their practice; where they practice; what they find meaningful and rewarding about their work; what is challenging about their work; and if they have been harassed or targeted by anti-choice groups/individuals and how they deal with it.

*The views expressed during this session are the views of Dr. Reisinger-Kindle alone, and do not reflect the views of his employers or affiliated organizations.

While some states have banned abortion, other states have gestational-age based limits. Federal legislation banning abortion after 15-weeks’ gestation has also been proposed. With advancing gestational age, a higher proportion of abortions are performed for fetal indications. Expediting prenatal diagnosis can provide pregnant women with information necessary to make reproductive decisions at earlier stages of pregnancy, and can help ensure that abortion care will be available without traveling out-of-state. This session will review prenatal diagnosis of structural and genetic abnormalities, including strategies to achieve prenatal diagnosis at earlier gestational ages.

The Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Supreme Court decision has significantly impacted abortion training for residents. During this panel, medical educators from across the United States will share strategies for training residents in abortion care under new legislation in their respective states, as well as approaches to assessment of competence. Panelists will also explore ways to incorporate abortion advocacy into residency curriculums.

Many women of reproductive age experience a variety of postpartum pregnancy complications which should be entirely prevented within the first 6 weeks after delivery. The postpartum period is also a key intervention point to prevent a repeat adolescent pregnancy and its associated sequalae. There is an immediate need to promote and incorporate post-abortion care (PAC) into family planning provision. Daunting gaps and barriers such as religion and African cultural beliefs have impacted sexual and reproductive health advocacy efforts and recommendations in postpartum family planning provision that have both positively and negatively affected contraceptive use in Uganda.

Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) is a safe and easy method of providing early surgical abortion. It is also used for miscarriage management, treatment of failed medical abortion, or endometrial biopsy. MVA provides a low-tech alternative to electric vacuum aspiration that is gentler, quieter and used throughout the world in low resource settings. The session provides a hands-on learning opportunity using papayas as a uterine model.

Join abortion providers as they share their stories in an informal dialogue. Hear why they chose to provide abortion as part of their practice; where they practice; what they find meaningful and rewarding about their work; what is challenging about their work; and if they have been harassed or targeted by anti-choice groups/individuals and how they deal with it.

In this session, we aim to strengthen students understanding of the impact of abortion criminalization on women, girls and pregnant people’s health and rights. We will discuss the direct and indirect consequences of the United States Supreme Court decision, especially for women, girls, and pregnant people’s rights, both in the U.S and abroad. Additionally, we will share examples of opportunities and lessons learned from Latin America advocacy in the last 30 years, including how medical students and healthcare staff can be advocates for abortion access and rights.

Practicing abortion care in hostile areas is fundamentally different than in supportive places. The challenges and barriers we face to providing this basic healthcare are extreme; however, to truly operate from a reproductive justice framework, it is imperative to be rooted in the communities we care for. There is no substitute for intimately knowing the history, culture and politics of where we practice. Communities hold the keys to their liberation. As physicians, true solidarity with our patients and with our movement comrades begins with being a community member. Partnering with on-the-ground activists, clinic staff, and patients from the region is essential to strengthening and empowering the communities that support our clinics; however, for decades, many organizations in the Midwest and South have relied on traveling physicians to provide care. The interplay between the (artificial) scarcity of local providers and the centrality of deeply-rooted local experience to movement building creates obstacles to authentic community connection, as well as opportunities for growth and innovation. In this session, Dr Christina Bourne (she/her) and Dr Quinn Jackson (he/they) will discuss the importance of community in abortion work and their experiences working and living in Kansas.

This session is an interactive narrative medicine workshop designed to explore, from a provider perspective, stories of abortion care and our reasons for telling these stories. It interrogates issues of reproductive justice and marginalized voices in narrative medicine, while also making an argument for the necessity of storytelling to effect social change. Participants are asked to bring a paper and pen and be prepared to participate in short writing exercises.