Creating tomorrow's abortion providers and pro-choice physicians

Medical Students for Choice® (MSFC) is dedicated to ensuring that women receive the full range of reproductive healthcare choices. MSFC recognizes that one of the greatest obstacles to safe and legal abortion is the absence of trained providers. As medical students and residents, we work to make reproductive health care, including abortion, a part of standard medical education and residency training.

MSFC was founded in 1993 by Jody Steinauer, a medical student at UCSF. She and several classmates were outraged by not only the stigma and isolation they encountered as pro-choice medical students, but also the threat of violence to physicians who practiced abortion. Nationwide, medical schools were not addressing abortion, and new physicians were graduating with little, if any, exposure to this common procedure. In order to directly

combat the growing lack of abortion providers and the declining access to abortion services, they began to build a national network of pro-choice medical students working to make abortion a normal part of reproductive health education.

51% 49%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

UnintendedIntended

Source: Finer et al., 2006 (2002 data)

% of pregnancies

Outcomes of Unintended Pregnancies(Approximately 3.1 Million Annually)

48% 52%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Abortions Births

Source: Finer, 2006 (2002 data)

% of unintended pregnancies (excluding miscarriages)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005

Source: Jones 2008

Abortions per 1,000 women

Regional Meetings Annual Meetings Medical school chapter events

◦In 2011, MSFC student groups hosted over 1000 campus events about abortion and family planning!

Has your school devoted just one lecture to one of the most common surgical procedures?

Have you been able to practice discussing pregnancy options counseling in a simulated patient setting?

Has your pharmacology course discussed medical abortion? (Bet you learned about Viagra, though!)

Regardless of personal beliefs, physicians must be equipped with evidence-based

knowledge

Don’t accept your medical school’s

failure to prepare you!

Knowledge is Power

MSFC students at 47 schools are working on creating changes in their curriculum.

Since the inception of this program, MSFC students have established changes at 56 schools.

Your medical school doesn’t offer adequate abortion training, or you are looking for more?

MSFC’s RHE is a program where medical students can access a catalog of host physicians and clinics to form their own, custom-tailored medical experience Stipend is provided to cover

travel, housing, etc

MSFC now has over 10,000 members 77% of accredited medical school

campuses (127 out of 176) in the U.S. and Canada

Over 200 residency programs Nearly 50% of first- and second-year

medical students are educated by curriculum improvements made by MSFC activists.

Our 10 full-time staff members based in Philadelphia, PA can assist you within hours on any MSFC issue

Our website (www.medicalstudentsforchoice.org) has many resources, including PowerPoints for easy lunchtime events

Reproductive Health Externship

Funding renewed every semester for educational programming (Student Activism Fund)

Travel scholarships for Annual and Regional Meetings

Student Trust Fund for safeguarding of any fundraising efforts

Speaker database

MSFC’s Annual Meeting and Regional Meetings where you can network with like-minded med students and learn about topics you care about!

Equipment mailed to you for hands-on workshops such as our famous papaya workshops (manual vacuum aspiration technique),no-scalpel vasectomy workshops, and IUD insertion workshops

Access to MSFC’s video lending library