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Medical Students for Choice: origins, current orientations, and potential impact
Delese Wear1, Cynthia Keck-McNulty
1Department of Behavioral Sciences, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, 4209 State Route 44, P.O. Box 95, Rootstown, OH 44272, USA. dw@neoucom.edu
Background:
Medical Students for Choice is a U.S.-based organization concerned with the shortage of abortion providers, the lack of abortion education in medical schools, and violence against abortion providers. Created in 1993, MSFC has 110 chapters in North America with 7,000 student affiliates.
Description:
The rapid spread of MSFC chapters since its creation prompted the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine's chapter to undertake group interviews of 40 medical students affiliated with 7 MSFC chapters in 4 midwestern states in the United States.
Evaluation:
Interview questions were developed to identify students' motivations for affiliation with MSFC, how abortion was currently addressed in the medical curriculum and where it should be, how students think abortion providers are perceived by the medical community, and how they plan to integrate their commitment to reproductive choice in their future practice.
Conclusions:
Not all students affiliated with MSFC will become abortion providers, but they are politically enthusiastic and committed to the inclusion of abortion in medical training and to legitimizing and normalizing its provision. More research tracking this group across time and geography will add much to understanding abortion services in the United States and what part the medical curriculum plays in educating students to provide comprehensive reproductive health services for women.