Abortion Care &
Reproductive Health Project

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 elective for U.S. and international 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.

AMSA has a rich history with medical school scorecards. In 2007, AMSA launched the first PharmFree Scorecard to assess medical schools’ policies on conflicts of interest. This scorecard gained nationwide traction and brought awareness to the influence pharmaceutical and medical device industries have on medical trainees.

The AMSA Reproductive Health Scorecard will access and score U.S. medical schools on the presence or lack of training on reproductive health and abortion skills; including lectures, clinical skills, and elective rotations or externships offered for students wishing to pursue obstetrics and family medicine specialties. Our goal is to see this scorecard serve as a guide for medical schools to ensure trainees more experience in abortion and reproductive health. The Scorecard will emphasize that abortion is part of women’s health care and that medical schools should provide full-spectrum women’s health, obstetrical, and gynecological training.  For more information email arunyan@amsa.org.

AMSA Reproductive Health Institute 2023 

We are excited to share we’ve designed a new format that features monthly live and on-demand sessions, advocacy & clinical skills-building, one-on-one mentoring and coaching, along with on-site special networking and action opportunities at AMSACon 2023 in Phoenix, AZ.

Applications are now closed

Check out our post in AMSA ON CALL:

Calling Repro Freedom Dreamers & Doers!

The “WHY”

The late civil rights activist, Toni Cade Bambara, once said, “The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.”  At a time when authoritarian and fascist movements in the US are organizing to reverse more than 60 years of gains in human and civil rights, we – those of us on the side of freedom, truth, and beauty – must present a compelling and irresistible vision for collective liberation, freedom, and flourishing. Too often, the side of freedom fails to convey what we are actually for, because we speak so frequently about what we are against. But merely speaking against things does not a movement make! At least, not one that is grounded in joyful community, embodied connection, and deep resolve to keep fighting for what is right and good.

This year’s Abortion Care & Reproductive Health Institute will help future physicians lead with positive values that point to a better world for us all. The Institute will be an exploration of what it means to say that “hope is not a feeling, it is a discipline” in light of the very serious and harmful attacks against reproductive health, rights, and justice that we are experiencing in the US — including the egregious reversal of the constitutional protection to the right to abortion care. For as much as it is necessary to boldly step up and say “No!” to these ongoing attacks, it is equally necessary that we tell and embody a counternarrative that invites and draws people into the vital and creative work of building the world we actually dream of.

So, if you are a future physician who is also a Reproductive Freedom Dreamer and Doer, this Institute might be for you!
READ MORE…

AMSA Medical Ethics in Reproductive Health Leadership Program

This Medical Ethics in Reproductive Health Leadership Program is designed to engage medical students in the difficult and necessary conversations and analyses of historical and present-day reproductive injustices and ethical failures, taking a close look at these instances not merely for their historical significance, but even more importantly, for their relevance to our current context of institutional and systemic racism, sexism, and classism. Utilizing critical lenses based in the lived experiences of those who as individuals and communities have been the targets and victims of sexual and reproductive health abuse, control, violence, and dehumanization.

This online program includes ten 60-minute sessions, registration is open to all AMSA members.
Each dynamic session will include a presentation from key thought leaders in their fields and engaging Q/A with the speaker(s).
All sessions are recorded for later viewing by registered participants.

Sessions are held on Thursday evenings from 8:00-9:00pm(E)
Sept 29, Oct 13 & 27, Nov 10, Dec 1 & 15,
2023: Jan 5 & 19, Feb 2 & 16

Registration for Fall 2022 is now closed.

CLICK HERE to add your name to our waiting list for the next offering of this program
Those on the waiting list will receive notification and have the opportunity to register for the program prior to opening of general member registration.

Participants who complete the program, including a qualifying examination,
will receive a certificate of completion and an AMSA honor cord appropriate to wear at graduation.
(Note: honor cords can only be shipped to U.S. mailing addresses)

Topics this program addresses:

• Developing Medicine: Wrestling with Our History
• The Ethics of Abortion Care
• Criminalizing Pregnancy
• Ethical Practice: Gag Laws & Provider Refusals
• When Routine Medical Training is Unethical and Becomes Illegal
• Stratified Reproduction
• “Do No Harm”- Physician Burnout as a Systemic Issue
• Ethics in Options Counseling & Values Clarification in Reproductive Care
• Transforming Medical Education and Practice: At the Root of It, Is Love

View Fall 2022 program syllabus with speakers list here

For more information please contact Becky Martin, AMSA Senior Manager of Education & Advocacy at bmartin@amsa.org

AMSA Reproductive Health Scholars Program

AMSA strives to empower physicians-in-training to effect change through education and advocacy. AMSA Scholars Programs are designed to provide medical and premed students with information not covered in traditional medical school curriculum and to foster an online learning community of future physicians.

The AMSA Reproductive Health Scholars Program addresses the “hidden curriculum” in medical school and prepare students to think critically about abortion-related and education and training opportunities. At the end of the program, participants develop a project utilizing the knowledge gained from the course. The projects are an application of their new skills, as well as a professional development opportunity in the participant’s school or community. Throughout the experience, participants gain valuable mentorship from their Course Directors, fellow Scholars, and partner organizations to enhance their projects.

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.

Our Fall 2022 program has ended

CLICK HERE to add your name to our waiting list for the next offering of this program
Those on the waiting list will receive notification and have the opportunity to register for the program prior to opening of general member registration.

Topics this program addresses:

• History of Abortion
• Basic Clinical Overview of First & Second Trimester Abortion
• Options Counseling & Values Clarification in Reproductive Care
• Reproductive Justice: Framework & Advocacy
• Diversity & Equity in Abortion Access & Our Healthcare Workforce
• Rising Maternal Mortality in the United States
• State & Federal Laws: Impact on Access to Reproductive Care
• When Routine Training is Unethical & Becomes Illegal: The Case of Intimate Exams for Teaching Purposes
• Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, & Choice
• Taking Action & Accessing Abortion Training When it’s Not Offered at Your Med School

For more information please contact Becky Martin, AMSA Senior Manager of Education & Advocacy at bmartin@amsa.org