This webinar series is a collaborative partnership between the Group on Women in Medicine and Science (GWIMS) and the AAMC’s Medical Education Senior Leaders.
Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Care overturned the constitutional right to abortion and upended a 50-year precedent in the delivery or reproductive health and pregnancy care. The post Dobbs health care world is complex and challenging for patients, providers, and learners and introduces tremendous regional variability in how health care can be delivered. The implications are broadly discriminatory and effectively impact all pillars of academic medicine from healthcare to education to workforce to science.
All AAMC medical schools and teaching hospitals must now develop the knowledge, skills, and tools to navigate the multifaceted complexities the Dobbs decision has generated. The purpose of this webinar series is to support medical institutions, faculty, and trainees as they seek to preserve evidence-based practice and meaningful doctor-patient relationships that ensure our patients will have the ability and agency to make reproductive health decisions.
Why Dobbs Matters as an Equity Issue – Our Clarion Call for Reproductive Health
This webinar provides an overview of the national legal landscape in 2023, nearly a year after the Dobbs decision and new state-level restrictions. The session lays the foundation for upcoming webinars to delve into the specific impact of the Dobbs decision, ranging from implications for patient care to medical education to mental health. Invited speakers will approach the issue of reproductive rights through an equity lens and elucidate the far-reaching consequences of reproductive health restrictions.
The Post-Dobbs Impact on Medical Education – UME, GME, and Beyond
This webinar focuses on the impact the Dobbs decision has had on learners’ curricular experience, as well as medical education leaders and program directors, and discuss how institutions are addressing training requirements in the context of reproductive health restrictions.
Advocacy and Activism
Leading up to and immediately following the Dobbs decision, learners, physicians, and leaders in academic medicine stepped up their advocacy for reproductive rights and health. The webinar will review current advocacy efforts, specifically how institutions are working with community leaders and how individuals can advocate inside and outside their organizations. Access webinar recording.
Beyond Pregnancy: Impact on Providers and all Women of Reproductive Age
Beyond the legal, medical education, and patient care impact of the Dobbs decision, there is emerging research pointing to the distressing mental health impacts on patients and providers alike post-Dobbs. While much of the information presented in this series has focused on the impact on patients, this webinar will address the mental health effects reproductive health restrictions have had on providers themselves, as well as patients. The webinar will also include discussion on how providers can take care of themselves and support each other in these challenging times. Access webinar recording.
The Future – Where Do We Go from Here?
The final webinar in this series will summarize suggestions and recommendations from previous webinars, capture new insights, and leverage voices from the academic medicine community to identify next steps and how everyone can engage in protecting reproductive rights and health. The focus and format of this final session will emerge over the course of the series as well as in conjunction with two related sessions to be held during the AAMC Learn Serve Lead Annual Meeting.