Dive Brief:
- Several organizations that offer abortion training are seeing an increase in the number of doctors and medical students attending its sessions.
- Most physicians trained to provide the procedure choose to practice in cities, leaving rural areas without doctors willing or able to provide abortions, Reuters reported.
- Most of the newly-trained abortion providers are women, who comprise 80% of obstetrician-gynecologist residents.
Dive Insight:
Medical Students for Choice, a nonprofit group with 185 chapters, sent 137 medical students for abortion training last year, more than double the amount in 2010. This year, it has received 321 applications for its two-day and three-day Abortion Training Institute, compared to 228 applicants from last year.
The Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program sets up family planning and abortion training at 85 teaching hospitals. The program trains close to 1,000 residents annually. Uta Landy, founder of the program, told Reuters laws restricting abortion increase interest in such training.
Although there are more doctors attending abortion training, setting up practice in some areas -- especially in Southern and Midwestern states -- is difficult due to certain state laws that impose waiting periods or have strict requirements. For example, Texas has closed more than half of its clinics offering abortion since 2013 due to a law requiring clinics to abide by surgery center standards and abortion providers to have hospital admitting privileges. The Supreme Court is currently considering whether this Texas law is constitutional.