1. ABORTION IN PERSPECTIVE

^{Updated June 2022 by Monica Agarwal, MD, Sheila Attaie, DO, Anna Sliwowska, MD}

Welcome to your early pregnancy options and abortion training. Especially in light of the recent loss of 50 years of federal reproductive protections in the U.S., we are committed to training, supporting, and mobilizing all primary care clinicians to help ensure equitable access to sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion, to all our patients.

Primary care providers globally serve an important role in the provision of reproductive health services as they practice in diverse, rural, and underserved areas (Graham 2005), receive procedural training, and care for patients throughout their reproductive years. This text is primarily U.S.- focused, with expanded global reporting for a growing global audience.

This curriculum can help you be a better primary care provider for patients of reproductive age. There are many skills to gain including pregnancy dating, options counseling, timely referrals, miscarriage management, and abortion care. It is beneficial to read Chapters 1 and 2 before beginning your training to help explore your personal values about pregnancy outcomes, how they may differ from your patients’ values, and think about professional judgments you may be called upon to make.

CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Following completion of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Explore your personal values and feelings about pregnancy outcomes

• Clarify your individual training goals and strategies to achieve these with faculty

• Describe constraints on reproductive care and access globally

• Be familiar with data on abortion safety and factors that promote/limit safety

• Understand the influence of abortion-related stigma on patients and providers

• Understand professional ethics within a justice-based & public health framework.

VIDEOS:

• Advancing Equity & Justice in Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare  (Structures & Self Series; IERH)
• Global Perspectives: video interviews with U.S. and international experts

RESOURCES

• • • Pregnancy Options (NAF)
    • State and Global Policy Updates (Guttmacher Institute):
      • States Laws and Policies
      • International Laws and Policies
    • Sistersong Reproductive Justice Resources
    • When Abortion is Not Available