Medical Students For Choice

Description

The United States and Canada face a dangerous shortage of trained abortion providers. In 2000, 87% of the counties in the United States had no provider (1). The "graying" of current providers (57% of whom are over the age of 50 (7) ), violence that targets physicians, and restrictive legislation threaten to drive these numbers even lower. In addition, medical schools are simply not addressing the topic; most physicians are graduating with little more than circumstantial knowledge of abortion.

Medical Students for Choice stands up in the face of violent opposition, working to destigmatize abortion provision among medical students and residents, and to persuade medical schools and residency programs to include abortion as a part of the reproductive health services curriculum.

Today MSFC is an internationally known non-profit organization with a network of over 10,000 medical students and residents around the United States and Canada and a successful track record. Since 1993 MSFC has:

• Coordinated a strong network of student leaders on medical school campuses across the United States and Canada, including groups in traditionally conservative areas of both countries;
• Established formal MSFC campus groups at 123 medical schools;
• Increased our membership from 4,000 in early 1999 to over 10,000 in 2005;
• Established electives, or other opportunities for abortion education, at medical schools across the U.S. and Canada;
• Matched hundreds of student externs with reproductive health facilities in the U.S. and Canada through the Reproductive Health Externship Program;
• Held 7 successful Leadership Training Programs, which offer MSFC student leaders the opportunity to develop effective community organizing skills; and
• Held twelve successful Annual Meetings serving more than 2,850 medical students and residents from across North America.