Medical students and reproductive health – vtdigger.org

Grace Benninghoff’s article outlined the perspectives of a fourth-year medical student and an assistant professor at the Larner College of Medicine on the status of abortion training in the curriculum. 

As a pro-life student at Larner, I believe we share common ground that the university can do more for its students, but for different reasons.

Regardless of political, religious, or cultural backgrounds, medical education must provide unbiased, equal representation of options in reproductive health care.

Unfortunately, the current curriculum displays a disproportionate emphasis of lecture content and training dedicated to pregnancy prevention/termination compared to alternative options (continuing to term, adoption, natural family planning). The university provides student groups, including Med Students for Choice, while no matching Med Students for Life group exists.

With the Supreme Court hearings regarding Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health and Vermont’s Proposal 5, it’s becoming more challenging to separate politics from medicine. However, depoliticizing medical education does not entail closing the conversation.

In fact, a group of second-year students met this semester to analyze the medical curriculum for examples of bias and to submit actionable feedback for improvement. The event was well-represented by diverse perspectives, and the discussion was peaceful, respectful and constructive. We discussed conscience protection rights for physicians to follow their moral obligations in practice, while not consequently being pressured, judged, or punished.

After this experience, I am hopeful and optimistic for my future class of physicians to enter the divided climate of reproductive health care while remembering our commitment to patients and ourselves.

Stephen Foley

Burlington

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