Program Description:

Developed in partnership between the AMSA Reproductive Health Project and the RJ Med Ed Project of the University of Michigan Medical School, this virtual elective for U.S. and international fourth-year medical students (in particular, medical students pursuing family medicine or ob/gyn) will center Reproductive Justice (RJ) as a human-rights framework for exploring topics related to reproductive health and abortion care, including approaches to RJ-informed and trauma-informed patient care. The course will present reproductive health education with a focus on the interconnections of power, privilege, oppression, and resistance. Students will engage with critical social theories – including Critical Race Theory, Intersectional Feminism, and Queer Theory – to explore, interrogate, and reflect on the complex sociocultural, medico-legal, and politico-economic context of sexual and reproductive health.

The program is grounded in a pedagogy of liberatory education (Paulo Freire; bell hooks), and in a commitment to practicing an ethics of Love-centered educational care for adult learners that help us create and sustain deeper relationships within intentional communities.

This course will cover healthcare delivery including family planning and abortion care in a post-Roe reality. Even though this is a non-clinical elective, we will significantly incorporate approaches to patient care that are loving and affirmative of the universal human right to bodily autonomy, agency, and dignity, with a focus on correcting and repairing medicine’s ethical failures to honor the bodily autonomy, agency, and dignity of women and femme people generally, and especially Indigenous and Black women, and queer and trans people.

For many years, HEART-IM has taken place at the Quaker Center in Ben Lomond, California, where students spend the month in a cooperative living and learning environment, cooking and cleaning together, teaching and learning from each other. Our 2026 elective will take place Sunday, March 29 – Saturday, April 25, 2026.

AMSA course fees cover all major expenses for the month, including housing, meals, snacks, lectures, evening on-site activities, and local transportation for official activities. Students pay their own way to the designated airport, and transportation is provided from there. 

• Participation cost
  • $500 program course fee through AMSA for AMSA members
  • $600 program course fee through AMSA for non-members
• Participant travel
  • Participants are responsible for arranging your own travel to either San Francisco (SFO) or San Jose (SJC)

Learn More & Apply

Issue Education Teach-In Topics Include:

• The History of Abortion: Roots of Stigma, Opportunities for Change
• Abortion as a Moral & Social Good: The Ethical Basis for Conscientious Provision of Abortion Care
• Religious & Spiritual Affirmation of Abortion
• Men & Abortion – Feminist Frameworks for Male/Masc Abortion Rights Allies
• Fetal Personhood & Criminalizing Pregnancy
• Physicians as Enforcers: Urine Drug Screens, Mandated Reporting & Criminalization of Pregnant People
• Anti-abortion Laws & Maternal Mortality: Turning the Tide
• Birth Justice – A Framework for Improving U.S. Health Outcomes by Uniting Physicians, Midwives & Doulas 
• Reproductive Justice: A Movement & Framework for Equitable Health Care

To learn more & arrange a customized, no cost teach-in, complete this – Interest Form 

• Effective Communication about Abortion Care: What & How We Talk Matters
• Lifting Your Voice: Writing Compelling LTEs,OpEds & Blog Posts
• Building Relationships with Reproductive Freedom Champions in Your State
• Understanding How Bills Become Laws & Regulations Govern Physician Practice
• Finding & Sharing Change-maker Stories in Your Community
• Translating Data & Research Findings into Policy Recommendations
• Designing & Presenting Compelling Research Projects

To learn more & arrange a customized, no cost teach-in, complete this – Interest Form 

Topics this program addresses:

• Diversity & Equity in Abortion Access & Our Healthcare Workforce
• Basic Clinical Overview of First & Second Trimester Abortion
• Protecting Reproductive Health: State & Federal Laws that Impact Access & Care
• Reproductive Justice: Framework & Advocacy
• Options Counseling & Values Clarification in Reproductive Care
• Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, & Choice
• When Routine Training is Unethical & Becomes Illegal: The Case of Intimate Exams for Teaching Purposes

For more information please email rhp@amsa.org

Note: Students attending an international medical schools who are either U.S. citizens or intend to practice in the US may register with the understanding our program focus is on U.S. abortion policy and practice and is not designed to address policy or practice outside the U.S.