Abortion training is a required component of US ob-gyn graduate medical education training and recommended in family medicine training. While individual residents may choose to opt out of training in certain conditions – namely personal or religious conflicts- this chapter describes the importance of facilitating participation of residents up to their comfort level in order to learn the essential and transferable skills in the provision of women’s health care.   This chapter describes the history of partial participation and provides evidence from multiple studies which have found that learners who object to abortion but partially participate in training in family planning and abortion gain important clinical and professional skills and appreciate the training. It describes various protocols and guidance for teaching leadership to support partial participation, specifics on setting clear expectations, and suggestions for when to facilitate discussions for residents who aren’t certain about the participation level, or plan to opt out.

Medical educators have a responsibility to train medical students in the competencies needed to improve the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of their communities.Abortion is not only a core component of SRH care it is also common with 56 million annually worldwide. While abortion is very safe when provided by trained clinicians, almost half (45%) of abortions are practiced under unsafe conditions leading to an estimated 7 million complications and accounting for 8% of maternal deaths each year. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), unsafe abortion can be prevented by giving women access to legal abortion by trained, competent practitioners and timely emergency treatment of complications. Significant barriers to implementing abortion laws in these settings are the lack of properly trained health personnel and lack of abortion training in medical schools.This chapter begins with an overview of medical education standards and their relevance for sexual and reproductive health. It then reviews the literature about medical student education about abortion and includes a sample of regional and national organizational recommendations. It finally describes opportunities for inclusion of abortion in medical education, using the educational objective standards set by the World Federation of Medical Education.

Community is an essential concept of human interaction and productivity. It can be built around religion, political orientation, artistic interests and other shared beliefs and activities. Community creates a sense of belonging, connection and support, and allows groups to accomplish specific tasks.

Abortion is common medical procedure and the shortage of providers has been widely reported. This chapter describes the history of abortion training in the United States, including the establishment of the Ryan Residency Training Program, and reiterates that to meet patients’ needs, all clinicians who care for women’s reproductive health must be trained in abortion skills – including counseling, preoperative assessment, ultrasound, medication abortion management, uterine evacuation techniques, pain management, and postoperative care.  This chapter describes the impacts of abortion training on learners’ clinical skills, attitudes toward patients and abortion provision, and on their professional practice. We describe the challenges in integrating abortion into resident curriculum, and how to find support and resources. We provide evidence of the many benefits of integrated training – including improving resident education and more comprehensive patient care, and argue that training in uterine evacuation skills is critical for all obstetrician-gynecologists.