Petition to include abortion training in Undergraduate Medical Education (UME)

The landscape of abortion access in the United States faces the most significant attack on reproductive justice in our lifetime. Medical education institutions must be prepared to provide medical students with exposure, knowledge, and training on this life-saving procedure. Medical schools must be prepared to provide training even if abortion happens to be banned in states where those schools exist.

Abortion is medical care, and the lack of options to safely inform and train future physicians on the skillset will lead to increases in maternal mortality, from complications from surgical procedures done unsafely, and complications to maternal health if forced to carry a pregnancy to term.

We, as medical students and trainees, are asking the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) to include abortion learning objectives and options counseling within the accreditation requirements of each medical school. Currently, the LCME requires that medical school curriculum include each organ system, each phase of the human life cycle, continuity of care, and preventive, acute, chronic, rehabilitative, and end of life care, however, does not include any reference to abortion training.

As a medical community and medical education training community, it is the responsibility of the LCME to hold medical schools accountable for providing comprehensive and patient-centered medical education. Healthcare is paramount over any political agenda, and the LCME should be able to defend medical education against policies that endanger the health of our patients.