Our Impact

Research and Evaluation

RHEDI conducts a broad range of research and evaluation activities that demonstrate the impact of integrated abortion and contraceptive training in family medicine residencies, and examine how provision of these services within family medicine can improve abortion access and quality of care.

Since RHEDI’s founding in 2004, we’ve grown from working with only a few family medicine residencies to partnering with 36 residency programs around the country to institute high-quality integrated opt-out abortion training. In the period from 2006 through 2020, RHEDI faculty trained 2028 residents in abortion. The majority of these residents were trained in both medication abortion and abortion procedures, in both family medicine and high volume clinic settings, preparing them to provide comprehensive abortion care for their future patients.

In our research, which followed family physicians who trained in abortion at RHEDI programs, 24% have provided abortion after residency, as compared to only 3.5% of a representative survey of family physicians in a similar age cohort. Furthermore, RHEDI’s impact goes beyond the learners we’ve trained directly: RHEDI graduates have gone on to found new RHEDI programs, to train over 1600 learners in abortion, to initiate abortion provision at their workplaces, and to be active leaders in abortion training, access, research, and policy within family medicine.

Family Physicians Providing Abortion After Residency

As part of our routine evaluation work, we collect the following data:

Pre- and post-residency surveys from residents at RHEDI programs, to measure the effects of integrated abortion training
Directors’ survey, completed annually by RHEDI directors for specifics on the abortion and enhanced reproductive health training at their residency programs
Post-graduate study: conducted in 2017 and 2020, surveying practicing family physicians who graduated from RHEDI programs 2 to 6 years earlier, to learn more about their post-residency provision of abortion and other reproductive health services
Pre and post surveys for specific RHEDI workshops and curricula, including papaya workshops and medication abortion learning tools.

What's New

Three recent research studies from RHEDI were published in Family Medicine,

The first, “Abortion Provision after Routine Abortion Training in Family Medicine Residencies,” draws on research from our post-graduate studies, where we surveyed currently practicing family physicians (RHEDI graduates and a comparison group), about their current practice patterns, and found that routine opt-out abortion training during residency was strongly linked to abortion provision after residency.
The second, “Abortion Training and Provision among Family Physicians Underrepresented in Medicine,” specifically examined the experiences of RHEDI alumni who are underrepresented minorities in medicine (URM) and compared those experiences to that of their non-URM colleagues. We found that despite similar training and intentions to provide between the two groups, URM physicians go on to provide abortion at lower rates, spurring discussion of particular barriers to abortion provision that these physicians may face.
“Abortion Training in Family Medicine Residency Programs: A National Survey of Program Directors 5 Months After the Dobbs Decision” explored abortion training across residency programs to achieve a comprehensive and updated understanding of the availability of abortion training within family medicine residency programs (FMRPs) including both routine and optional training and both medication and aspiration abortion. We found that more than half of the responding FMRPs reported some abortion training though much of it was elective. The presence of abortion training was associated with a program having 31 or more residents, being in a state with protected abortion access, not having a Catholic affiliation, and having a program director who believed abortion training should be routine in FMRPs.

Results from this study will be presented at the annual conferences of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine
and the National Abortion Federation Conference, both in Spring 2024.

Supporting RHEDI program evaluation

We are also always happy to share the routine evaluation data that RHEDI collects from your program’s residents with RHEDI directors and faculty. If you’re interested in exploring a potential collaborative project, please reach out to us at info@rhedi.org, to discuss further. We look forward to hearing from you!

Learn more about abortion care research in family medicine.

These core publications on abortion and contraception care in family medicine offer essential background knowledge for providers, educators, advocates.