Dear ProLife Colleague: this is the 3rd letter of advice from your peers regarding students/residents and abortion related assignments. The comments are unedited. Female 1. They may have the students doing something entirely separate from the abortions. When I was a student we rotated through a county “family planning” clinic where abortions were done, but on our family planning clinic day, we mainly wrote for birth control pills and checked BP’s. It was a place like Planned Parenthood, but we were not involved in any abortions there. And our role was pretty minimal as students, since we could not actually prescribe the birth control. I didn’t feel I was put in the position of compromising on any principles. 2. Find out IF there will be any involvement with abortions, ahead of time. Once, on my 3rd year OB/GYN rotation, I was assigned for part of the time with a doc in private practice. He said, “I’m doing an abortion tomorrow, you can come and watch if you want.” He sounded like he was allowing it to be optional, and from what he said I would be watching. Not assisting. And he was in private practice, so usually the guys in private practice didn’t necessarily want students to do much more than watch. Still, I phoned my pastor and asked him about it. We both agreed that if I only watched, that would not be wrong, and I should pray for the woman, silently of course. I did consider “what if he ends up wanting me to hold something or assist in some way,” and I was aware that things can come up suddenly in a surgical situation where people just say, “Here, hold this,” or “Do that,” so I had that in mind also… if I would have gone in to watch the abortion, I would have been very clear with the attending that I was not agreeable to assisting. But then she changed her mind, and that was the only abortion case. So, if it is not entirely clear, find out in advance IF one will be in on abortions, and if one will be watching vs. assisting, because that makes a difference. If a student could be present ONLY to watch and not assist, then that would be quite an opportunity to learn, to see how the women are really treated etc. What are they told about the procedure etc. Might even be an opportunity to find out if state informed consent laws are being followed etc. if it is an informed consent state, etc. But good to find out what is expected, set boundaries and see if it looks workable. 3. At the family planning clinic, we did do STD screenings and pelvic exams, and that was really our main reason for being there, I think, to just get practice doing the pelvic exams. If it was just that, I personally would have no problem just doing the pelvic exams even if it is Planned Parenthood, and I could do a rotation there. However, if that is a problem, there ought to be some community STD clinic or an STD clinic at the Medical School that would be an acceptable alternative. The pro-life pregnancy center would not be comparable because many aren’t medical, and even if medical such as providing ultrasound, you don’t get the experience in doing pelvic exams and treating STD’s. 4. Be informed. In addition to the AAPLOG website, go also to www.standapart.org and look at some of the research there on women’s mental health in relation to abortion. Possibly there will be some moment when you have an opportunity to educate another student, a resident, or even an attending, or perhaps there will be an opportunity to offer assistance to someone who does not really want an abortion. I have one other suggestion but I have to look up the link, so will follow up further later. Once I was involved in an abortion case while on a psychiatry rotation during residency. Because it was a second or third trimester, and too late to do at our medical center, the lady was going to go out of state to have the abortion. I was supposed to be involved in certifying “medical necessity” for a late abortion. Had it gotten to that point, I would have made someone else take over the case, but initially, I was just doing a psych evaluation, getting the information, and it had not reached a point where someone was going to expect me to sign something for her to have an abortion. Because it was so late, the states involved had a couple of standards, but just a couple signatures on a paper, and the abortion moves forward. Anyway, while she was in psychiatry, when the right opportunity presented itself, I offered her the opportunity to view the ultrasound of her baby, which nobody else would have done, and later in the process she and her husband decided they were going to proceed with the pregnancy and not have the abortion. She changed her mind. I think probably seeing the print of the ultrasound probably made the difference. There may be opportunities to make a difference even for some of the abortion patients, but one would want to be certain that one was not going to be in a position of potentially being forced into contributing to the actual abortion process.
Female http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF10B09.pdf As an additional suggestion, I would suggest that residents take a look at this brochure– not sure if this is at the AAPLOG website or not– and become familiar with the info as well as following the links that are given. Might possibly give some ideas for discussion with patients or preceptors.
Female (I think, from email address) I am from Winston-Salem, NC. You should be able to determine the School of Medicine in that city. I was taking a course of study at the school shortly after I moved to W-S. I recall hearing an OBG faculty member say to another, “No resident is going to do a residency here without have done abortions.” The statement shocked me, and being new in the community I did not speak up, but should have. About 2 years later a new group of house officers began their 1st yr. rotation. An MD who will go nameless, when faced with being forced to perform abortions, told the OBG faculty absolutely not. Further he stated that if dismissed from the program he would bring suit against them and the school. The OBG department buckled. and he was excused from the performance of abortions. When other house officers saw this, several likewise told the faculty that they were no longer going to perform abortions. The actions of this young physician, while not stopping the performance of abor tions at this medical school at least brought to end the coercion of house officers to perform them. A 2nd result was the complaint by the remaining OBG residents of having to do all the abortions, so the pro-choice faculty had to get involved to reduce the work load and get their hands involved in that dirty business. Many years later it was while discussing pro-Life issues with another resident that I learned of AAPLOG and joined.