MSFC Update - November 2004

From Campus to Career: An Abortion Training Story
By Vanita Kumar, MD

It is a really wild feeling for me to take a look back at my path from “campus to career.” It has been a long but incredible journey and I am thrilled to finally be able to say that I am a family physician and an abortion provider.

As a women and gender studies major in college, I went to medical school in 1996 with the mission to become a feminist physician and put my pro-woman goals into clinical practice. I remember eagerly looking for the MSFC booth at orientation at George Washington School of Medicine; I skimmed the tables for various organizations, but there wasn't one for MSFC. A couple of other women and I gathered at the AMWA table and talked about starting an MSFC group at GWU. The next day, I called the staff people at the national office, not sure what starting a group would entail. I was struck by how supportive, enthusiastic, and organized they were. They mailed us a box of materials which we received within a week. With that packet and a small list of 10-15 interested medical students, we were off to an exciting start.

Organizing MSFC events during medical school was my lifeline. Whenever I felt buried by all the minutia of pathology or pharmacology and started to wonder why I was there, I would remember MSFC and my bigger goals. I knew I wanted to provide pro-woman reproductive health care.

A real turning point for me was during the summer before my second year of medical school, when I participated in the MSFC Reproductive Health Externship program at Planned Parenthood in Washington, D.C. There, I learned firsthand from women why they chose to have an abortion. Those stories touched me on a deep and profound level. I met women who were terminating their pregnancies because they had birth control failures, were struggling with financial pressures, wanted to finish school, or wanted to be a good mother for the children they already had. For others, it just wasn't the right time. These stories reinforced for me that in order for women to have control over their lives, they need to be able to control their reproductive choices.

When it came time to choose a residency program, I decided on family practice, because for me it was the best way to provide pro-woman primary care to underserved communities and to be trained in abortions. I wanted to be at a residency program where my interest in abortion care would be supported, not hindered. So instead of gingerly mentioning my interests, I decided to be very open with my goals to the 6 or 8 programs on the East Coast to which I applied. The words “abortion”, “MSFC”, and “Planned Parenthood” were all over my applications. This really helped me figure out which programs had progressive pro-choice faculty who would support my educational goals.

I did my residency at Beth Israel in Urban Family Medicine in New York City. At Beth Israel, I met Linda Prine, MD, an energetic family practice attending and activist who trains clinicians in suction abortions at Planned Parenthood. With her mentorship and guidance, I created an elective during my second and third years of residency to train at Planned Parenthood of New York City in first trimester suction abortions. At our residency family medicine clinic, we started to integrate medical abortions into our practice, giving me the opportunity to learn both types of abortions in residency.

Since completing my residency, I have started a fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx under the wing of Marji Gold, MD, an incredible feminist family physician, abortion provider, and mentor. As a part of my fellowship, I have had the opportunity to continue to grow as an abortion provider at Planned Parent-hood and have recently begun to train residents in both medical and suction abortion procedures.

The relationships I have developed with my patients at my family practice clinic and at Planned Parenthood have been so gratifying. Offering medical abortion services to women in my family practice office has given me the chance to provide a full spectrum of reproductive health care to patients with complete privacy and continuity of care. Many of my closest patient relationships are with women to whom I have provided medical abortions. The sense of gratitude and appreciation patients express to me after their procedure is priceless. I have learned a lot from my patients, about how to make tough decisions and how crucial it is for each woman to be able to decide when to be a mother — or not. As an abortion provider, I help women empower themselves by honoring their reproductive choices. I am proud to be a part of the new generation of abortion providers.

Vanita Kumar, MD, is a family physician and abortion provider in New York, NY, and was an early MSFC activist.

MSFC STUDENTS AND RESIDENTS:
We want to hear about your experiences! Please email us at lois@ms4c.org to tell us about the challenges you have faced in seeking abortion training.