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.

If YOU are a medical student based in the U.S., an AMSA member* and YOU, like AMSA, believe:

• reproductive health services, including abortion care, are essential to comprehensive health care,
• legal, safe, voluntary abortions should be available to all who need them, regardless of how much they earn, who they work for, or what state they live in, and 
• both Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) and Graduate Medical Education (GME) programs should offer abortion education and training.

If YOU uphold the fundamental principles of reproductive justice:**

• the right to have children,
• the right to not have children, and 
• the right to nurture the children we have in a safe and healthy environment.

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 EITHER of these two date options:  

• July 25-28 (Summer A) 
• August 8-11 (Summer B)

READ ON!

The AMSA Abortion Care & Reproductive Health Project is excited to host 2 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.

Clarion voices calling future physicians to join them in working to protect reproductive freedom and justice for all will join us in deep conversations sharing their wisdom and resources from key organizations including:

• The COMS Project
• Health Care for America Now
• M&A Hotline and ACT, the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine
• Reproductive Health Access Project
• State Innovation Exchange, Reproductive Freedom Leadership Council
• Scholars Strategy Network

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 receive a variety of take-home resources and assistance to organize 1 or more local events during the 2024-2025 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 stipend 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 is Monday, June 24 at 11:59pmPT
• Applicants will be notified of acceptance by Friday, June 28 
• Applicant participation must confirm by Monday, July 1 at 11:59pmPT

Upon completion certificates of participation to add to your CV will be provided.

Note: AMSA Institutes utilize Google Classrooms. A personal Gmail address is required to participate (a Gmail address provided by your school will not work). Confirmed Institute participants will receive access to the Classroom on Tuesday, July 2. Materials to be reviewed prior to the start of the Institute will be included.

Applications Open Now – Seats Limited 

Apply HERE Today!

For more information email rhp@amsa.org

*AMSA membership info link – Email rhp@amsa.org for scholarship info
**Source – https://blackrj.org/our-causes/reproductive-justice/

Two Years Post-Roe: Uniting to Turn the Tide as Patients, Providers & Medical Education Face Growing Risks

Friday, June 21 from 6:30 – 8:30pmE

co-hosted by
AMSA Reproductive Health Project & Medical Students for Choice

Our program will include a 90-minute panel discussion with key experts and thought-leaders. The panel will discuss the impact of the decision on medical education and training, medication abortion, and state health policies including shield laws, and engage in interactive Q/A with audience members.  Followed by optional 30-min skill-building breakout sessions exploring:

• Writing Letters-to-the-Editor
• Understanding State Ballot Measures
• Finding Reproductive Freedom Champions in Your State

Registration Closed

This Medical Ethics in Reproductive Health Teach-In is designed to engage medical students in the difficult and necessary conversations and analyses of historical and present-day reproductive injustices and ethical failures, taking a close look at these instances not merely for their historical significance, but even more importantly, for their relevance to our current context of institutional and systemic racism, sexism, and classism. Utilizing critical lenses based in the lived experiences of those who as individuals and communities have been the targets and victims of sexual and reproductive health abuse, control, violence, and dehumanization.

Stay Tuned for More! Upcoming Teach-Ins will explore:

• Conscientious Provision – the Moral & Ethical Case for Abortion Care as a Social Good
• Physicians as Enforcers – Pregnancy Criminalization & Physician Reporting
• Biopower, Stratified Reproduction, & the Questions of Whose Lives Matter and How Much

Sign up Here  for updates on future offerings

AMSA Reproductive Health Scholars Program
Fall 2024 – Coming Soon!

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.

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.

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