222-227 Steinauer

Clearly, the prevention and management of unintended pregnancy are primary health services needed by the majority of women of reproductive age, as well as many comparable men. The training that family physicians receive in family planning and first-trimester abortion is critical, yet few studies have investigated these aspects of their education. The Council on Residency Education in Family Practice recommends residency training in pregnancy risk-assessment and conception control, including family planning, oral contraceptive counseling, IUD insertion and removal, diaphragm fitting and tubal ligation, as well as voluntary interruption of pregnancy up to 10 weeks of gestation.7 Despite the Council’s recommendations, research has demonstrated that very few residents are being trained in abortion. A 1993 nationwide study of family practice programs revealed that only 12% offered abortion training.8 An analysis of eight programs in Southern California revealed that 42% of residents had been offered abortion training, but less than one-fourth of these residents had performed an abortion in the previous year.9 No recent studies have investigated family practice training in the provision of contraceptive and sterilization services. The decrease in access to abortion over the last 15 years provides another reason to investigate family planning training of family physicians, since this decrease has been attributed to a shortage of abortion providers.10 As of 1992, only 16% of U. S. Training Family Practice Residents in Abortion and Other Reproductive Health Care: A Nationwide Survey