April 1, 2008 – Dr. Courtney B. Jackson and colleagues at Ibis Reproductive Health received the 2008 National Abortion Federation Scientific Poster Award. Entitled “Abortion training experiences among newly graduated Ob/Gyn residents,” the poster presents the results of a qualitative study dedicated to the factors influencing residents’ decisions to train in and intentions to provide abortion care. The findings reveal that training opportunities in pregnancy options counseling, abortion procedures counseling, and first trimester abortion procedures need to be strengthened and that requiring residents to use elective time to receive abortion training is impractical. A sociologist whose research focuses on increasing access to abortion care and addressing the abortion provider shortage, Dr. Jackson is the 2006-2008 Ellertson Fellow at Ibis Reproductive Health. Poster coauthors include Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Angel M. Foster and former Ibis intern Samantha Charm. The award was sponsored by SCI International, Inc. This study is one part of a mixed-methods project dedicated to investigating abortion training in Ob/Gyn residency programs. The larger project includes three components: 1) a content analysis of 246 Ob/Gyn residency program websites; 2) a survey of approximately 1,000 residents who completed residency in 2007; and 3) in-depth interviews with 36 physicians who completed residency in 2007. The study was commissioned by Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health and supported by the Charlotte Ellertson Social Science Postdoctoral Fellowship in Abortion and Reproductive Health.
For information about the study, please contact Dr. Foster (afoster@ibisreproductivehealth.org).
Many other Ibis staff also made presentations at the 2008 NAF Annual Meeting. Senior Associate Dr. Deborah Kacanek gave a scientific paper on the availability of public funding for abortions in the US under the Hyde Amendment. Dr. Angel Foster and colleagues presented two posters, one on the physical, legal, and institutional barriers to abortion access in the West Bank, and another about a survey of the reproductive health content of Massachusetts nursing programs. Senior Associate Dr. Dan Grossman and colleagues presented a poster on the cost of medication abortion compared to aspiration abortion in Mexico City. Dr. Grossman was also a panelist on a session addressing how Latinas in the US and Latin America talk and feel about abortion.
In addition, the Ellertson Fellowship Program, coordinated at Ibis, organized the 5th Annual Social Scientists Networking Meeting, which brought together social scientists from diverse disciplines to share current and future research ideas and to discuss political and methodological challenges to research on abortion, particularly in the context of the US political climate.