By Armide Storey, M2, Boston University School of Medicine As a medical student, it is easy to get bogged down in the every day. And it is easy, sometimes, to forget why I chose to become a doctor. For this I am most thankful for MSFC and the Conference on Family Planning. To be surrounded by peers who …

By Frank Kiwango, Sweetness Laizer & Yasson Mwakibinga Sexual and reproductive health is a disputed topic in Africa due to cultural diversity and religion. Before embarking on this externship the three of us, Frank Kiwango, Sweetness Laizer, and Yasson Mwakibinga, fifth year medical students at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University, had different ideologies and mentalities on what …

By Alana Cartens For most of my life I have danced around the sidelines of the reproductive justice movement, always supporting, but more actively involved in work around racial justice and international human rights. Attending the Medical Students for Choice Conference on Family Planning last December shifted my focus to see how, in many ways, …

By Andrea Chiavarini, MD As an Ob/Gyn and abortion provider in Portland, Wichita, and Oklahoma City, I share my personal story and how my experience as an MSFC member led me to my current practice in a new documentary looking at the lives of abortion providers, featuring a number of MSFC alumni physicians and long-time …

Isabella Taylor, OMS II Class of 2019 President of the Reproductive Health Club ’16-’17 Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, an Osteopathic medical school, lies in the heart of central Washington State, a region that historically votes red. A large portion of the students, faculty, and staff are politically conservative, which tends to influence our …

University of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda July 8, 2017 By Lois V. Backus, MPH Executive Director, Medical Students for Choice Women’s ability to exercise their sexuality and plan their families with the help of qualified physicians is more threatened today than it has been in nearly 50 years. After decades of progress with safe abortion and …

by Anonymous medical student at Georgetown University School of Medicine If I had a dollar for each time someone said this to me, I would have enough money to pay for someone’s abortion. It is frequently followed by: “If you care so much about these issues, why didn’t you go to a different medical school?” …

Growing up in a liberal community in New Jersey, I considered comprehensive sex education unremarkable and reproductive services a part of primary care. During my work in health policy research and evaluation after college, I realized I had taken this perspective for granted. One of my most memorable experiences came in analyzing a national funding …

By Maya Nojechowicz As an MSFC student organizer, it was inspiring to witness MSFC members from two Michigan universities use their leverage as medical students to advocate for improved access to abortion training in residency programs. While much of MSFC’s focus is on providing abortion education in preclinical years, it is due to the advocacy …