Summer 2026
AMSA Abortion Care & Reproductive Justice Summer Institutes
Join us in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Asheville, NC
Applications Now Open!
The AMSA Abortion Care & Reproductive Health Project is excited to host 4 in-person Abortion Care & Reproductive Justice Institutes this summer:
- May 14 – 17 (Summer A)
- June 11 – 14 (Summer B)
- July 30 – Aug 2 (Summer C)
- August 20-23 (Summer D)
Each Institute will engage 10 U.S. based medical students in thought-provoking, dynamic conversations, as well as issue education, and hands-on clinical skill-building, with key experts working in abortion care, reproductive health and education, research, or reproductive and social justice. Institutes are open to all U.S. based AMSA medical student members.
Want to know what an AMSA Repro Institute is really like? Read what a M4 student who joined us last summer had to say about the experience: Recharging Your Medical Passion: The Power of a Retreat Why Every Medical Student Should Do a Medical Retreat (for any specialty)
Seats Limited – Application Deadline – Sunday, March 29 at 11:59pmPT
There is NO cost to attend this incredible learning adventure
(special funding covers student expenses to participate)
Fall 2025 Reproductive Health Sprint Applications Now Open!
AMSA’s Reproductive Health Mentorship Sprint Program is designed to pair interested mentors and mentees for a structured 4-week mentorship experience to discuss and explore:
- Reproductive Justice
- Gender and racial justice in sexual/reproductive healthcare and primary care
- Preparing for residency and ensuring access to training in family planning and abortion care
- Career opportunities for clinical practice focused on family planning, abortion care, and primary care
- The effects of public policy on reproductive healthcare
- Work-life balance as physician, addressing moral injury, and mitigating risk of personal harm as an abortion provider
- Health advocacy as a physician-activist
- Research interests in reproductive health(care), rights, and justice
Eligible applicants will be paired by their indication of interest in the above topics and a few other factors. We’ll match you with a mentor/mentee with similar interests, and we’ll provide resources to guide you through four mentoring sessions, one per week.
Learn More HERE
Program Timeline — Fall 2025
- Mentees Info – Mentors Info
Create profile by: Sunday, Nov. 9
- Live Orientation Session (for mentors and mentees):
Wednesday, Nov. 19 from 8:00pm – 9:00pmET
- Mentorship sprint takes place:
Wednesday, Nov. 19 – Friday, Dec. 19
- Reflections, Feedback, and Happy Hour:
Friday, December 19; 6:00pm – 7:00pm ET
Humanistic Elective in Activism, Reflective Transformation, Integrative Medicine & Reproductive Justice (HEART-IM/RJ)
In-Person Learning Retreat in Santa Cruz Mountains- March 29 – April 25, 2026
Application Deadline Dec 15, 2025
We are excited to offer in Spring 2026 a re-imagined HEART-IM program in collaboration with the AMSA Reproductive Health Project. This four-week, in-person elective will maintain integrative medicine at the core (heart!) of HEART, while also exploring the interconnections between integrative medicine, cultural somatics, and the movements for reproductive health, rights, and justice (RHRJ).
This elective is designed to support physicians-in-training in making sense of and co-creating meaningful responses to this particular moment of time in which bodily autonomy, agency, and other human rights are threatened by authoritarian and fascist political movements.
Applicants should have a strong interest in and curiosity about integrative medicine, cultural somatics, justice-making, and exploring paths of social transformation through the Reproductive Justice framework leading to healing, thriving, and flourishing for all.
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.
Accreditation for this rotation is offered through the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine. Please contact Dr. Jeff Koetje (jkoetje@amsa.org) and Dr. Aliye Runyan (arunyan@amsa.org) for more information and assistance.
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.
AMSA Elective in Abortion Care, Family Planning & Reproductive Justice (non-clinical)
Next Offerings – Winter 2026
1 credit P/F Electives – Seats Limited
Registration in VSLO Now Open!
In VSLO, search for “OBSTGYN-8403 – Reproductive Autonomy, Health Disparities & Justice (Virtual), Obstetrics and Gynecology”
A virtual, credit-bearing elective for US and international medical students (M4s), who are passionately interested in developing and deepening their knowledge and skills in abortion care, family planning, and reproductive justice.
All sessions are held from 1:00pm – 3:00pm ET via Zoom
No in-person components, this elective is conducted fully online, and may be taken for credit, or audited (not for credit).
For more information email Dr. Jeff Koetje (jkoetje@amsa.org), Dr. Aliye Runyan (arunyan@amsa.org),
and Dr. Charisse Loder (loder@med.umich.edu).
Themes & Topics:
- Reproductive Justice: Framework, definitions, and herstory
- Historical Injustices and Today’s Crises: The continuous thread of scientific and medical racism and sexism in Reproductive Health and abortion care
- Family Planning and Abortion Care: Options counseling, values clarification, medication and procedural abortion, messaging and framing
- Her Stories of Resistance: Honoring those who fight back, speak up, and labor to get free
- Power and Control in Reproductive Health & Abortion Care: Religion, morality, masculinity and medicine – who gets to claim the right to shape reality
- Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice: Access, disparities, and structural competency
- Reproductive Health Law and Policies: At the intersection of medicine and law, patient and community, care and advocacy
- Affirmative Patient Care: Sexual and reproductive healthcare for LGB+, trans, queer, and non-binary people
- Human-centered Care: Professional humility, trauma-informed sensitivity, cultural safety, and non-violent communication
For more information email Dr. Jeff Koetje (jkoetje@amsa.org), Dr. Aliye Runyan (arunyan@amsa.org), and Dr. Charisse Loder (loder@med.umich.edu).
AMSA Reproductive Health Scholars Program Spring 2026
Registration Opens HERE
November 7, 2025!
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 prepares 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.
Scholars Program Topics
- 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
Note: Students attending 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.
