Senate bill would fund training for health care providers in abortion care for 5 years
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Key takeaways:
- Bill will fund medical school programs for the next 5 years to teach abortion training.
- Funding will also be used to help students traveling out of state for abortion training and their programs.
A bill introduced to the Senate will provide funding for the next 5 years to medical school programs for abortion care training and for students who have to travel out of state for abortion training, according to a press release.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, introduced the Reproductive Health Care Training Act of 2023, which will award grants or contracts providing $25 million per year for the next 5 years to fund eligible programs to train students, residents and advanced practice clinicians in abortion care.
“When Roe v. Wade was overturned, women in Wisconsin were sent back to 1849, living under a criminal abortion ban, but the impact didn’t stop there. Doctors have been barred from providing the care they have been trained to perform and medical students and faculty are being forced to travel out of state for training. In order for women to exercise their right and freedom to control their bodies, doctors need the proper reproductive health care training,” Baldwin said in the release. “The Reproductive Health Care Training Act will bolster the pipeline of these needed doctors by easing the burden that out-of-state training presents and supporting the medical programs that are seeing an influx of individuals that need training.”
After the Dobbs decision in 2022, at least 14 U.S. states have near total abortion bans and others have severely restricted abortion access, according to the release. As a result, medical programs are challenged with ensuring proper abortion care training for residents and students, according to the release.
This bill would fund medical programs to teach abortion care and also fund programs with students traveling out of state and programs in states that are accommodating an influx of students traveling for this education.
Grants would be available to accredited health profession schools, academic health centers and other safety-net providers in all states to offset additional costs associated with training providers today, according to the release. In addition, the bill would allow funds to be used for clinical training and development of educational programs in abortion care, instructor and faculty development, stipends to support access to training and improving care in medically underserved areas, according to the release.
“The nonstop Republican attacks on reproductive health care are having a chilling effect not only on patients seeking care, but also on the doctors and nurses who provide it. We need to make sure that health professionals in every state can receive critical training in reproductive health care — even if they have to travel to other states to get it,” Murray said in the release. “This legislation will establish a much-needed grant program for schools and health centers in states like Washington, where abortion is legal, to expand clinical training for abortion care in a post-Roe world.”
The Reproductive Health Care Training Act of 2023 is currently supported by Physicians for Reproductive Health, ACOG, the University of Washington Health, the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, Power to Decide and Planned Parenthood.
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Training in abortion care is in disarray since the Dobbs decision. Arranging and obtaining this training has been challenging for many medical schools and residency programs even prior to Dobbs and even in less restrictive states. Abortion care often occurs outside mainstream medical training settings in freestanding, independent clinics requiring additional layers of administrative effort and commitment on the part of institutions, clinics and training directors. Since Dobbs, almost half of OB-GYN residents — and many medical students, family medicine residents and advanced practice provider trainees — live in highly restricted states where abortion care has largely disappeared. Arranging out-of-state training in the setting of high cost, heightened stigma and logistical barriers is exceptionally difficult.
The Reproductive Health Care Training Act proposed by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash) would greatly facilitate the expansion of abortion training for all students, residents and advanced practice providers as well as the highly complex process of out-of-state training, both in support of the institutions who send their trainees and of the institutions who take on the burden of training additional individuals. Beyond providing funds for these challenging endeavors, the Reproductive Health Care Training Act sends a strong message supporting abortion care as an integral component of high-quality reproductive health care.
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