Medical Students for Choice's

2023 Conference on Family Planning

December 2 - 3 , 2023

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to network with expert faculty, receive high-quality education not typically offered in medical school curricula, and participate in hands-on training opportunities with other pro-choice medical students and residents who are passionate about abortion care and family planning.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Physician Harm Reduction as Essential Healthcare“, and will feature interactive and didactic sessions highlighting the role of physicians in reducing morbidity and mortality due to reproductive health inequities in marginalized communities through evidence-based practices and advocacy for harm reduction in public health policies. Attendees will also learn harm reduction techniques and practices specific to reproductive healthcare and have opportunities to engage legal experts with questions specific to physician harm reduction in practice.

Why should you attend?

  • Hear from our keynote speaker – Bhavik Kumar, MD, MPH, Medical Director, Primary and Trans Care at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast and National Medical Spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Federation of America
  • Receive high-quality evidence-based clinical education not typically offered in medical school curricula.
  • Enhance your technical skills through interactive hands-on training simulations for Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) and IUD Placement.
  • Interact and share ideas and success stories with medical students from MSFC chapters in the US and internationally at our community board and networking roundtables.
  • Connect with current abortion providers, residency programs and pro-choice organizations at our speaker panels and virtual exhibit booths.
  • Join us for plenary sessions:
    • Mitigating Harm: What Medical Professionals Should Know About Protecting the Welfare of the People in the Dobbs Era
    • Understanding the Medical Provider Role in Confronting Pregnancy Criminalization through Data, Practical Guidance and Intersectional Implications
    • Abortion Care in Humanitarian Settings: Challenges and Opportunities for Expanding Access
  • Top 3 most active attendees on our leaderboard at the end of the conference will win special prizes.

Keynote Speaker

Bhavik Kumar, MD, MPH

Dr. Bhavik Kumar (he/him/his) is a board-certified Family Medicine physician practicing in Houston, Texas. He completed medical school at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, residency in Family & Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center, and a Fellowship in Family Planning at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is a founding member of Centering Equity, Race, and Cultural Literacy in Family Planning (CERCL-FP). His clinical services include comprehensive family planning care, including abortion, primary care, and gender care. He is an outspoken advocate for abortion and trans care in the media and the courts. His research interests center on highlighting the effects of oppressive laws and policies impacting access to healthcare in Texas. As a gay man of color, Dr. Kumar works to highlight the intersections of queer and reproductive rights. He approaches his work with an anti-racist lens and aims to disrupt systems that have historically marginalized minoritized peoples.

 

10:00 – 11:00am EST
Keynote Address – Stories from the Depths of Restriction: Doing the Next Best Thing – Bhavik Kumar, MD, MPH
11:00 – 11:15am EST
Break
11:15am – 12:15pm EST | Concurrent Sessions
  • Abortion Techniques: A Hands-on Training (Limited enrollment, pre-registration required)
  • Provider Panel
  • First, Do No Harm: Moral Injury in a Post-Roe Nation
  • Ethical Dilemmas: A Case Based Discussion of Ethical Decision Making in Reproductive Health
  • Finding Shared Values and Utilizing a Public Narrative Approach to Evolve Public Opinion on Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare
12:15 – 12:45pm EST
Break
12:45 – 2:15pm EST
Plenary Session – Mitigating Harm: What Medical Professionals Should Know About Protecting the Welfare of the People in the Dobbs Era
2:15 – 2:30pm EST
Break
2:30 – 3:30pm EST | Concurrent Sessions
  • Educational Program on Bayer IUDs: An Overview for New Learners (Limited enrollment, pre-registration required)
  • Abortion Training in Residency Panel
  • Abortion and Addiction – Stigma Intersects
  • Bringing Telemedicine Abortion to All, Regardless of Zip Code
  • Medication Abortion in a World Without Mifepristone
3:30 – 3:45pm EST
Break
3:45 – 4:45pm EST | Concurrent Sessions
  • Provider Panel
  • Disrupting Pipelines to Family Surveillance and Protecting Historically and Systematically Marginalized Patients From Criminalization
  • STI Health Disparities in the LGBTQIA+ Community: Why They Exist and How to Address Them
  • HEART to Grow: Reproductive Justice For Muslims
  • Effective Contraceptives for Adolescents
4:45 – 5:00pm EST
Break
5:00 – 6:00pm
Virtual Happy Hour & Networking Roundtable Event
10:00 – 11:00am EST
Plenary Session – Understanding the Medical Provider Role in Confronting Pregnancy Criminalization through Data, Practical Guidance, and Intersectional Implications
11:00 – 11:15am EST
Break
11:15am – 12:15pm EST | Concurrent Sessions
  • Educational Program on Bayer IUDs: An Overview for New Learners (Limited enrollment, pre-registration required)
  • Provider Panel
  • Engagement as a Means to Health Equity: The Crucial Role of Voting on Reproductive Health
  • Self-Managed Abortion in the USA; What Doctors Need to Know
  • Permanent Contraception in a Post-Dobbs World; Ensuring Equitable Access
12:15 – 12:45pm EST
Break
12:45 -1:45pm EST
Plenary Session – Abortion Care in Humanitarian Settings: Challenges and Opportunities for Expanding Access
1:45 – 2:00pm EST
Break
2:00 – 3:00pm EST | Concurrent Sessions
  • Abortion Techniques: A Hands-on Training (Limited enrollment, pre-registration required)
  • Provider Panel
  • Words Matter: Accurate and Empathic Language for the Abortion Encounter and Beyond
  • Health, Rights, and Justice: Frameworks to Address Reproductive Oppression
  • Lessons on Abortion Law Reform in Malawi: What Went Wrong?
3:00 – 3:15pm EST
Break
3:15 – 4:15pm EST | Concurrent Sessions
  • Intersectional Mentoring: Strategies for Navigating Institutional Racism, Power & Positionality for Mentees
  • Optimizing Postpartum Contraception for High-risk Obstetric Patients
  • “Why Can’t You Just Quit?” Approaching Perinatal Substance Use with Love, Empathy, and Harm Reduction Practices
  • Partnering with Health Workers: Combating Maternal Mortality and Morbidity in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Premature Ovarian Failure: A Silent Epidemic
4:15 – 4:30pm EST
Break
4:30 – 5:00pm EST
Closing Address – MSFC Past, Present and Future Presidents

Read the full program and all the session descriptions here.

*Recorded sessions will remain available to registrants on the conference website for 3months from the conference date. Hands-on training sessions will not be recorded. Some sessions will not be recorded by faculty request due to the sensitive nature of the topics discussed.

Exhibitors

  • Society of Family Planning
  • Ryan Residency Training Program
  • National Women’s Law Center
  • The Afiya Center
  • Desert Star Institute for Family Planning
  • Abortion Defense Network
  • Reproductive Health Project, American Medical Student Association
Registration for the Conference is now closed.

Registration Price

US Medical Students and Residents: 

  • Standard Registration Fee: $100 USD 

International Medical Students and Residents: 

  • Standard Registration Fee: $50 USD 

SFP Membership Bundle Package (for Medical Students Only): 

  • US Medical Students: $140 USD 
  • International Medical Students: $90 USD

This bundle package includes:

  • MSFC conference standard registration
  • 1-year student membership to the Society of Family Planning (at a discounted rate of $40 USD)

MSFC Alumni & Other Guests: 

  • Regular Registration Fee: $150 USD 
  • Sponsored Registration Fee: $250 USD (includes a sponsored registration for medical student under-represented in medicine)

* The Society of Family Planning membership is automatically included in these membership bundle packages.

Important: The discounted Society of Family Planning membership fee of $40 USD is only available as part of the bundle package mentioned above. It cannot be purchased separately. Registrants who select the SFP Membership Bundle Package will receive an email with a voucher code to use when applying for the SFP student membership after MSFC’s conference registration is complete. Click here to learn more about the benefits of SFP membership!

Registration for MVA & IUD hands-on training sessions ends on November 15 to allow for adequate time to ship training supplies.

Hands-on training sessions are limited enrollment sessions and will be open to medical students residing in the US and Canada only due to shipping constraints. Plenary sessions will be open to all conference attendees.

For more information, please contact the MSFC staff at meetings@msfc.org.