Women's Options Center

We spend half a day in the Women's Options Center which provides abortion services, education, and care to those with undesired pregnancies or pregnancies complicated by fetal abnormalities or maternal conditions. I know this is a controversial topic to bring up in a public forum. My clinic experience was extremely educational; they prepare us by providing a good review article to read about methods of elective abortion. We then follow patients through their visit. We see the counseling they get from the medical educators, their interactions with the physicians, and the preparation for medical abortion or procedure for surgical abortion. The entire experience is from the patient's perspective.

I think that it certainly helped me better understand the process of abortion. It's serious. It's emotionally intense, difficult for patients, and often involves complicated social or medical situations (a single teenage mother already with several children, a fourth miscarriage in a woman who wants to be a mother, a fetus with a chromosomal abnormality). Even medical abortion which involves only pills and suppositories, the process is not a simple one. It's educational listening to patients' questions and concerns. I think all medical students should have this as part of their education; even if one doesn't provide abortions, it's important to know what one's patients have gone through or may request in the future. I also think that those taking part in abortion debates for either side should really learn about what happens in these clinics.