US Charity to Remedy “Acute” Shortage of Expert Abortion Practitioners in the UK

By Lucia Muchova | April 10, 2012

Medical Students for Choice (MSFC), a US group set up to provide abortion training for medical students, will provide grants for up to 15 British and Irish students to train in abortion provision at British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) clinics- “the UK’s leading independent provider of abortion care” per their admission.

According to the Guardian, MSFC campaigners are “concerned that an absence of termination training in medical schools – coupled with what they see as a political hostility – will lead to a shortage of practitioners that could jeopardise women’s access to services in the future.”

To remedy the desperate lack of interest in abortion provision, MSFC will provide students with funds to cover their travel and accommodation. The Guardian reports these expenses are part of MSFC’s $100,000 budget funding externships in 10 countries.

The abortion industry is clearly facing less and less interest among medical students to train as abortion providers. Attempts to remedy the dearth of expert providers must, therefore, extend beyond national borders:

There is already an acute shortage of expert abortion practitioners in the UK, with fewer than a dozen doctors able to provide surgical abortions up to the legal limit of 24 weeks gestation, almost all working for providers such as BPAS and Marie Stopes, rather than the NHS. It means some women needing late abortions – many of which will be in cases of fetal anomaly – have to have medical inductions.

“We hope these externships will inspire the doctors of tomorrow to consider a career providing this key component of women’s healthcare,” said, Patricia Lohr, medical director of BPAS.

Read more here.

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