I AM A LOOKING TO GO

NEW! Summer 2025 Essay Contest Series

3 Chances to Get Published & Win Cash Prizes!


Open to All AMSA Members!

Separate Competitions for Premeds & Medical Students 

(3 Award Categories for Both Competitions in Each of the 3 Contest Themes)

June Contest Theme

The Impact of Decisions

Details Below

Submission Deadline

Sunday, May 25th, 2025
at 11:59pmPT

Submit Essays Here

 

August Contest Theme

Abortion Care Solidarity

Details Below

Submission Deadline

Sunday, July 13th, 2025
at 11:59pmPT

Submit Essays Here

 

September Contest Theme

Breaking Down Abortion Care Stigma 

Details Below

Submission Deadline

Sunday, September 7, 2025
at 11:59pmPT

Submit Essays Here

As we approach the three-year mark of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned nearly 50 years of federal protection for abortion care, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, AMSA members are invited to reflect, write and share their thoughts in essays exploring the intersection of reproductive justice and medical ethics. 

Our Summer 2025 Essay Contest Series provides a platform to amplify student voices, and promote a culture of empathy, solidarity, and evidence-based care. Each contest in the series offers separate competitions for premeds and medical students, and is OPEN to ALL AMSA MEMBERS.

AWARDS

  • 1st Prize $500 Cash & Featured Publication in Special Issues of AMSA’s Weekly Consult, AMSA’s national blog, On Call, & Repro eNews Spotlight on Abortion Care & Reproductive Justice and highlighted within the AMSA Reproductive Health Project webpages and @AMSAnational Social Media 
  • 2nd Prize $250 Cash & Featured Publication in AMSA’s national blog, On Call, & Repro eNews Spotlight on Abortion Care & Reproductive Justice, and highlighted within the AMSA Reproductive Health Project webpages and @AMSAnational Social Media
  • Honorable Mention – Featured Publication in AMSA’s national blog, On Call, & Repro eNews Spotlight on Abortion Care & Reproductive Justice, and highlighted within the AMSA Reproductive Health Project webpages

June Contest Theme

The Impact of Decisions

As we approach the three-year mark of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned nearly 50 years of federal protection for abortion care, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the impact of this decision continues to shape conversations about medical decision-making, patient autonomy, physician practice, and the role of politics in healthcare. Abortion care is now totally banned in 12 states and deeply restricted in 29 more states. Since the decision we’ve also seen voters in 13 states vote to add protections for abortion care to their state constitutions (5 in 2022 and 7 in 2024).  

Even in states where abortion care remains legal, the Court’s decision has also begun impacting future physicians. Across the country people who’ve grown up with the dream of becoming physicians are weighing the impact of the Dobbs decision as they decide: which states they will apply to attend college and medical school, which states they will apply to residency and fellowship programs, and where they will seek to establish practices upon completion of their training? The Dobbs decision has also impacted the way patients and providers both think about patient care, trust, and the boundaries of government intervention in medicine.

Our June Essay Contest invites AMSA members to reflect on how they, as future physicians, can support their patients’ decisions in the exam room—free from political influence—while considering how landmark rulings like Dobbs have reshaped their approach to decision-making, not only in reproductive care but also in other aspects of life. How do political and legal changes influence your medical education, your community, and your understanding of ethical patient care? What is the impact of these decisions on both a personal and professional level? 

  • Submission Deadline Sunday, May 25, 2025 at 11:59pmPT
  • June Contest Winners – will be notified by June 17 and announced publicly June 24, 2025

Submit Essays Here

August Contest Theme

Abortion Care Solidarity

Solidarity has long been a driving force in movements for justice, from voting rights to reproductive freedom. The ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 marked a significant victory for women’s rights in the U.S., but it did not extend voting rights to all women. Black women, Indigenous women, Asian immigrants, and Latina women continued to face systemic barriers due to racist laws and policies. In the 1960-70’s in Chicago, women in Jane united in solidarity providing over 11,000 underground abortions to those in need until the Roe decision. In 1994, during the height of the Clinton Administration’s efforts to reform health care, Black women gathered in Chicago outlining what was at stake for them and their communities, leading to the development of the Reproductive Justice framework. This history serves as a reminder that true equity is not achieved through legal victories alone—it requires ongoing, collective action.

Today, as we face persistent and emerging threats to abortion rights and reproductive justice, we recognize that solidarity around abortion care is essential. This contest invites AMSA members to explore what solidarity in abortion and reproductive health care looks like: 

  • How can future physicians, healthcare providers, and advocates come together to protect and expand abortion access for diverse communities? 
  • What can we learn from past and present movements for justice to build a more inclusive and equitable future for reproductive rights? 
  • How can future physicians play a role in ensuring compassionate, accessible abortion care?

Essays should reflect on the power of collective action, the intersections of health equity and justice, and the responsibilities of those involved in medical education, training, and practice to make meaningful contributions to the fight for reproductive freedom.

Abortion Care Solidarity Resource to Explore – link

  • Submission Deadline – Sunday, July 13, 2025 at 11:59pmPT
  • August Contest Winners – will be notified by August 11 and announced publicly August 18, 2025

Submit Essays Here

September Contest Theme

Breaking Down Abortion Care Stigma

Abortion care stigma remains one of the biggest barriers to accessing safe and compassionate reproductive health care. Misinformation, cultural taboos, and restrictive policies continue to fuel shame, silence, and fear around abortion care, impacting patients, providers, and communities alike. As future physicians, medical students have a unique role in dismantling these barriers, advocating for evidence-based care, and ensuring that abortion care is recognized as an essential part of healthcare.

In recognition of September 28, International Safe Abortion Day, this essay contest invites medical students to explore the role of healthcare professionals in breaking down abortion care stigma. 

  • How do societal attitudes and institutional policies contribute to stigma, and how can medical professionals work to shift these narratives? 
  • What strategies can be used to normalize abortion care in medical education, clinical practice, and public discourse? 
  • How have you, or those around you, witnessed or experienced abortion stigma, and what role does solidarity play in overcoming it? 

Essays should reflect on the intersections of stigma, access, and advocacy while exploring how future physicians can help build a culture of respect, empathy, and reproductive justice that recognizes abortion care and those who provide that care as essential to our communities.

Abortion Care Stigma Resource to Explore: What is abortion stigma? 

  • Submission Deadline Sunday, September 7, 2025 at 11:59pmPT
  • September Contest Winners – will be notified by September 22 and announced publicly September 28, 2025

Submit Essays Here

SUMMER 2025 ESSAY CONTEST GUIDELINES

Submission Requirements: The AMSA Reproductive Health Project Summer 2025 Essay Contests are open to All AMSA members. Essay content MUST have a U.S. focus or context. Submissions must be an original, unpublished essay of no more than 750 words and must be written in English. Members may submit 1 essay for each of the three Contests, but authors who submit essays in multiple contests can win only 1 prize during this Summer 2025 Essay Contest Series. 

Publication/Promotion: Prizes will be awarded to selected essay authors for each of the 3 contests in the Summer 2025 series.  Winners for the first contest will be announced publicly June 24, August 18, September 28, 2025.

Selection Criteria: A panel of judges, to include a mix of medical students, AMSA Reproductive Health Project Mentors and Staff will review submissions from each competition and select 3 winning essays for each of the 3 contests in the Summer 2025 series. Essays will be judged on the following equally weighted criteria:

  • Content and connection to the topic 
  • Quality of writing and clarity of thought
  • Novelty of the message
  • Opportunity for others to learn

Questions: Email rhp@amsa.org

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Prizes & Special Funding Available to Participating AMSA Chapters & Members


AMSA Abortion Care & Reproductive Justice Institutes


AMSA Abortion Care & Reproductive Justice Institutes 2025!

Live & in-person this summer in the
Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina

Four upcoming opportunities are available to all U.S. based AMSA medical student members:
  • May 29 – June 1 (Summer A)
  • June 19 – 22 (Summer B)
  • July 24 – 27 (Summer C) 
  • August 14 – 17 (Summer D)
If YOU are interested in becoming part of a diverse physician workforce that includes highly skilled, culturally sensitive physicians prepared to provide abortion services to those who need them in various health care workplaces — and YOU are available ANY of our 4 Summer 2025 date options READ ON!


Seats Limited  – Apply HERE Today!


Application Deadline – Sunday, April 27 at 11:59pmPT 
Applicants are accepted on a rolling basis and will be notified of acceptance
at least 30 days before the Institute they are selected for

There is NO cost to attend this incredible learning adventure
(special funding covers student expenses to participate)

The AMSA Abortion Care & Reproductive Health Project is excited to host 4 in-person Abortion Care & Reproductive Justice Institutes this summer. 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.

Our retreat-like setting is a beautiful private location nestled deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The Institutes are designed to provide deep dive opportunities to build knowledge, skills, and connections in a supportive, nurturing and Love-centered community, with a focus on finding and connecting with joy as we work on challenging issues facing our communities and future practice as physicians.

Clinical skill-building sessions will include a MVA “papaya” workshop and values-clarification training.
We will explore the impact of the Dobbs decision on reproductive health access, practice and policies at the state level, as well as medication abortion and self-managed abortion. Learning opportunities will also include:

  • effective messaging communications
  • networking and advocacy training
  • building power and your circles of influence
  • identifying and engaging reproductive freedom champions in your state, and
  • values-based research and using data to make change.

The AMSA Reproductive Health Project provides resources and on-going support to organize local education and skill-building sessions for future physicians around the United States. Institute participants will be encouraged and supported to share the knowledge and skills they will gain through research project posters, journal articles, blog posts, social media, or organizing local events during the 2025-2026 academic year.  Local events could include, but are not limited to: clinical skills-building, networking and advocacy training, issue education, understanding state reproductive health policies, and values-based messaging and research.

The program begins on Thursday evening with a group dinner and ends after breakfast on Sunday morning.  In addition to didactic and clinical workshop-style learning, there will be ample time for informal conversations, delicious meals and snacks, walking in the woods, star-gazing, and relaxing in the hot-tubs and around the fire. Each participant will have their own bedroom, some bathrooms will be shared. Meals will be prepared together. 
Successful applicants will receive reimbursements (up to $600) to cover their travel expenses (students make their own travel arrangements). All meals, on-site training supplies, and transportation from the Asheville airport to the retreat location are provided at no cost. 
 
DEADLINES:
  • Application deadline for ALL 2025 Institutes is Sunday, April 27 at 11:59pmPT 
  • Applicants are accepted on a rolling basis and will be notified of acceptance at least
    30 days before the Institute they are selected for 
  • Selected applicant must confirm attendance within 7 days of notification of their selection
*Upon completion of the Institute, certificates of participation to add to your CV will be provided.

AMSA 75th Annual Meeting - #FP4Change2025

Join Us April 17-20 in Washington DC!


Fifteen scholarships have been awarded to U.S. premedical and medical students who are AMSA members to present posters on topics related to abortion care, reproductive health research, sexual/reproductive health (SRH) education and training experiences, Reproductive Justice advocacy, etc. during the in-person Poster Session at the upcoming AMSA annual meeting, Future Physicians for Change Convention, April 17 – 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C..

Repro Poster Presenter Scholarship Applications Now Closed

Join us at the in-person Poster Session Saturday, April 19, 2025
at FP4Change2025!

 

For more information email Dr. Jeff Koetje at jkoetje@amsa.org or Dr. Aliye Runyan at arunyan@amsa.org

AMSA Reproductive Health Mentorship Sprints


AMSA’s Reproductive Health Mentorship Sprint is designed to pair interested mentors and mentees for a structured 4-week mentorship experience to discuss topics like:

  • 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 health clinical care
  • 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 (current medical students) 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 as explained further below. 

Sign-up HERE for news on our upcoming Spring 2025 Sprint!

Hands-On Skill Building & Issue Education

Action Opportunities for AMSA Chapters & Members


The AMSA Reproductive Health Project offer an abundance of support to you, your AMSA chapter, your school, and your community with informational resources, connections to subject matter experts and activists for chapter events, and advocacy skills workshops.

Small chapter grants ($200 – $500) are available to cover food/beverage costs for AMSA Chapter events planned in coordination with the AMSA RHP! We can even help chapters with new member recruitment by providing AMSA RHP swag for tabling events and a limited number of free memberships for students who participate in RHP-sponsored chapter events!

Issue Education Teach-In Topics Include:

  • The History of Abortion: Roots of Stigma, Opportunities for Change
  • Abortion as a Moral & Social Good: The Ethical Basis for Conscientious Provision of Abortion Care
  • Religious & Spiritual Affirmation of Abortion
  • Men & Abortion – Feminist Frameworks for Male/Masc Abortion Rights Allies
  • Fetal Personhood & Criminalizing Pregnancy
  • Physicians as Enforcers: Urine Drug Screens, Mandated Reporting & Criminalization of Pregnant People
  • Anti-abortion Laws & Maternal Mortality: Turning the Tide
  • Birth Justice – A Framework for Improving U.S. Health Outcomes by Uniting Physicians, Midwives & Doulas 
  • Reproductive Justice: A Movement & Framework for Equitable Health Care

To learn more & arrange a customized, no cost teach-in complete thisInterest Form 

  • Effective Communication about Abortion Care: What & How We Talk Matters
  • Lifting Your Voice: Writing Compelling LTEs,OpEds & Blog Posts
  • Building Relationships with Reproductive Freedom Champions in Your State
  • Understanding How Bills Become Laws & Regulations Govern Physician Practice
  • Finding & Sharing Change-maker Stories in Your Community
  • Translating Data & Research Findings into Policy Recommendations
  • Designing & Presenting Compelling Research Projects

To learn more & arrange a customized, no cost teach-in complete thisInterest Form 

Stay tuned for details coming soon!

AMSA Academy Reproductive Health Offerings


The AMSA Abortion Care & Reproductive Health Project addresses the “hidden curriculum” in medical school, prepares students to think critically about abortion-related education and training opportunities, and provides students with issue education, advocacy training, and hands-on skill building sessions via AMSA Academy Scholars Programs and the AMSA Elective in Abortion Care, Family Planning & Reproductive Justice. Scroll down to learn more!

AMSA Reproductive Health Scholars Program
Fall 2024 – Now Closed

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.

Topics this program addresses:

  • 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

For more information please email rhp@amsa.org

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.

AMSA Elective in Abortion Care, Family Planning & Reproductive Justice (non-clinical)

FALL 2024 & WINTER 2025
1 credit P/F Electives – Seats Limited

Registration is Now Closed 

A virtual, credit-bearing elective for US and international medical students (all years), residents, fellows, and graduate public health students 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).

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 virtual 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.

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).