AMSA Reproductive Health Project eNews #October 11, 2025
Greetings from the AMSA Reproductive Health Project!
Happy National Coming Out Day! Annually observed on October 11 since 1988, this is a day to celebrate the power of living one’s life in alignment with one’s deepest understanding of oneself. It is, indeed, a day of celebrating the liberatory potential of living and moving through the world with authenticity as an “out” gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, asexual, poly, etc. person. It is also a day of acknowledging that our work will not be done until heteronormativity is completely dismantled, and everyone can live out their truth in the absence of the threat or risk of violence of homophobia, transphobia, femmephobia, and queerphobia. Until then, we hold with love and tenderness all of our LGBTQIA+ kin for whom the risk of violence prevents them from coming out. If this describes you and your situation, know that there is nothing wrong with you; it is the world dictated and distorted by heteronormativity that is pathological.
The House of Medicine has a heteronormativity problem, made all the worse by the fact that modern Medicine has been the social entity most responsible for the clinical pathologization of LGBTQIA+ people. Never forget that it was Medicine itself which classified homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder until 1973! As a gay, somewhat effeminate cisgender man in Medicine, I am very well aware of the homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia, and femmephobia that is at the core of the culture of modern Medicine. When I was a medical student in the late 1990s (I came out in 1997 at the age of 24, when I was an M2), I was subjected to homophobia by my own medical school faculty, and on several occasions over the past 25 years, I’ve been subjected to homophobia in my own primary care.
Speaking of primary care, this week we’ve also been celebrating National Primary Care Week (October 6-11). This annual week of observance of the critical importance of primary care is a reminder that our individual and collective health depends upon the accessibility of the basic necessities of life: clean water and air, nutritious food, stable housing, and access to healthcare. These are our rights as humans – we have the right to all of these basic necessities for living, regardless of the fact that capitalism tries to convince us of the lie that any of these necessities should be accessible only to those who can afford them. I highly recommend that you check out this conversation between AMSA’s current National President, Nikitha Balaji, and AMSA’s former national President and current AMSA Foundation Board President, Dr. Kelly Thibert. Dr. Thibert is a queer family medicine physician who provides comprehensive reproductive healthcare including abortion care and gender affirming care for trans people.
It shouldn’t have to be said, but it does need to be said: abortion care and gender affirming care are both evidence-based practices of primary care. And both are under attack by rightwing, authoritarian policies designed to control medical practice and force it into compliance with authoritarian and fascist State power. And these attacks won’t stop with abortion and gender affirming care: contraceptives, vaccines, and other standards of care are also under attack. And it’s on us to fight back and protect our professional integrity by refusing to abandon our commitment to evidence-based, person-centered, compassionate, equitable and just care.
One opportunity to better equip yourself for this long fight is the AMSA Reproductive Health Project’s Abortion Care and Reproductive Justice Advocacy Institutes. These 3-day, weekend retreats bring together 10 future physicians with activist physicians, community organizers, and leaders in the movement for reproductive health, rights, and justice for conversation, reflection, and planning for action. We invite you to add your name to our waitlist for the Summer 2026 Abortion Care and RJ Advocacy Institutes, and be the first to learn about the details and apply to be a part of these incredible gatherings. Here’s what a past participant wrote about in one of the Institutes:
Read on & share this week’s Repro eNews about primary care and the connections between reproductive health, primary care,
and the roles we can take on in the movement to ensure reproductive health, rights, and justice for everyone.
Where Are the Nation’s Primary Care Providers? It’s Not an Easy Answer
Searchable map & additions resources – KFF Health News – Link
WHEN WOMEN ARE DESERTED: The Prevalence and Intersection of Abortion Care Deserts, Pregnancy Care Deserts, Broadband Internet Deserts, and Food Deserts in the United States – 2025 Report from the National Women’s Law Center – Full Report Link
Learn More about U.S. Abortion Policies & Access After Roe – Interactive Map from The Guttmacher Institute
State of the U.S. Maternal Health Workforce 2024, HRSA – Link
Searchable map from the March of Dimes 2024 report – Link
As AMSA celebrates its annual National Primary Care Week, we are excited to announce that AMSA has formally endorsed Senator Sanders and Jeff Merkley’s Health Care Workforce Expansion Act, which seeks to address our looming physician shortage.
AMSA has long been a voice calling for a concerted response to this crisis. We recognize that we are situated within a country with the material means to foster a diverse physician workforce that is poised to meet the healthcare needs of all communities, especially communities historically underserved by our health care system. In order to bring forth this reality for America’s health care system, bipartisan and commonsense solutions to this crisis must be advanced.
Most recent data from the AAMC shows that the nation will face a physician shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036. These shortages are especially pronounced in primary care specialties, with projections estimating a shortage of up to 19,900 primary care physicians.
The Health Care Workforce Expansion Act seeks to address the physician shortage crisis by:
The legislation is endorsed by American Medical Student Association (AMSA) and a broad coalition of health care and labor organizations, including the:
