Oral

This session focuses on incidence of and programs related to medical abortion in the U.S. The first paper addresses the context of overall abortion incidence, including both surgical and medical abortion, and trends in the number of abortion providers in the US. A second paper, from the Abortion Access Project (AAP), will discuss state and national level processes used to expand access to abortion by developing Advanced Practice Clinicians (APC) as medical abortion providers. Key points will include legal and regulatory issues; engaging key stakeholders; and working with existing clinical standards and practices. Emerging challenges and future steps to solidify APCs as abortion providers and expand the participation of health personnel in the provision of medical abortion will also be discussed. This session will coincide with the publication of a Professional Toolkit designed to help APCs respond to emerging challenges and develop the necessary documentation to support the integration of early abortion into APC practice. A third presentation outlines how integrating medical abortion into family medicine could eliminate the abortion provider shortage. A final paper highlights the challenges faced by Primary Care providers in integrating medical abortion into their practices.

Session Objectives: ƒÞ Discuss incidence of medical abortion in the US. ƒÞ Discuss key regulatory and legal issues governing the ability of Advanced Practice Clinicians to provide medical abortion and processes used at the state and national level to use the APC model. ƒÞ Apply lessons learned to develop responses to emerging challenges to the APC model. ƒÞ Articulate the steps necessary to integrate medical abortion into a primary care setting and describe obstacles Primary Care physicians may face.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing