There are multiple family medicine fellowships in family planning, including RHAP’s Reproductive Health Care and Advocacy Fellowship, the TEACH Leadership Fellowship, and the Kansas Clinical Family Planning Fellowship. If you’re also interested in obstetrical care, then the University of New Mexico’s Maternal Child and Reproductive Health Fellowship may be an option to consider, as they do include access to abortion care and training.
- TEACH Leadership Fellowship
- Length: 1 year, part-time
- Locations: Flexible—part time Bay Area-based employment preferred
- Emphasis:
Leadership training/Advocacy — apply for Physicians for Reproductive Health Leadership Training Academy and advocate with state and national legislators
Faculty development — develop as a master trainer-in-training to teach hands-on skills and didactics for clinicians-in-training, work on curriculum improvements through the TEACH program
Clinical training and teaching — contraception, first trimester pregnancy termination, ultrasound
Research exposure
- Kansas Clinical Family Planning (KCFP) Fellowship
- Length: 9‒12 months
- Locations: Various clinics throughout Kansas at Planned Parenthood Great Plains. (Applicants will need to be able to be licensed in Kansas.)
- Emphasis:
- Clinical — comprehensive abortion care provision (medication abortion, procedural abortion up to 21.6wks, complex contraception
- Advocacy — navigation of politically repressive reproductive health landscapes; engagement with local independent providers; media and political engagement
- Maternal Child & Reproductive Health Fellowship at the University of New Mexico
Length: 2 years, full time
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Emphasis:
Clinical — care of complicated obstetric patients, C-sections, medications and procedural abortions, NICU, operative delivery, tubal ligation, colposcopy, ultrasound, vasectomy
Teaching — precept family medicine patients in clinic and on the labor and delivery unit
Chief Year
- Many family medicine residency programs offer a chief year option where you do administrative tasks to support the residency, and become involved in precepting and teaching residents. Think of it as a junior faculty position. If programs are amenable, you could consider incorporating abortion training into your chief year. You’d have to follow many of the processes delineated in the residency section to establish with a local (or out of state) abortion clinic, but many chief years offer the opportunity to do away electives, so this could be an option for you. Additionally, you could use this as an opportunity to strengthen miscarriage management and abortion care into your residency’s didactic curriculum. You could also consider applying for the Physicians for Reproductive Health Leadership Training Academy. The chief year is a great opportunity to experience medical education from a faculty perspective, as well as support your own professional development with interests of your choice.
Legal and Regulatory Assistance
As part of your training process, you will want to consider the logistical, legal, and regulatory steps necessary for you to be able to integrate abortion care into your practice. Since the Dobbs decision, these considerations are more complex and more important than ever, and vary widely from state-to-state. As you pursue training, we recommend consultation with the following organizations for individualized legal, regulatory, and digital security advice:
There are two primary non-fellowship post-graduate training opportunities that you may want to consider.
Legal and Regulatory Assistance
As part of your training process, you will want to consider the logistical, legal, and regulatory steps necessary for you to be able to integrate abortion care into your practice. Since the Dobbs decision, these considerations are more complex and more important than ever, and vary widely from state-to-state. As you pursue training, we recommend consultation with the following organizations for individualized legal, regulatory, and digital security advice:
Additional Resources