The Provider Shortage

One of the greatest obstacles to safe, legal abortion in the United States and Canada today is the absence of trained providers.

Abortion has been legal since 1973 in the United States, and since 1988 in Canada. Unfortunately, access to abortion services in both countries has been severely eroded. It has become increasingly difficult for women in most American states and Canadian provinces to access abortion services.

Lack of Training

Abortion is one of the most common medical procedures done today, yet few medical students and residents are learning about abortion and how to provide this procedure. Medical students are realizing that even if they don't plan to perform abortions themselves, they will have patients who are facing an unintended pregnancy.

Curriculum Reform

As an academic subject, abortion is given scarcely more than a few sentences in most medical school courses combined. When medical students and residents are prevented from getting a comprehensive education that includes all aspects of reproductive health, their ability to provide quality comprehensive medical care to women is compromised. Unless medical schools change their curricula to include abortion, the legality of a woman's right to choose becomes irrelevant. Access to abortion cannot exist without trained providers.

What MSFC is doing!

Medical Students for Choice activists and staff work hard to ensure that medical schools and residency programs in the U.S. and Canada offer students abortion education as well as training opportunities.

MSFC student groups throughout the U.S. and Canada are taking their training into their own hands, and many students are taking the initiative to access greater training opportunities.

Working in the U.S. and Canada, MSFC student groups are helping to reshape the curricula of today's medical schools and residencies. Already, MSFC groups have made substantial progress in reforming the curricula at nearly one-third of the medical schools in the U.S. and Canada.