Pro-choice training
Medical institutions,like women, must have the freedom to choose

Whether abortion is accepted in America as morally right is not an issue -- because abortion is legal.

But a decision handed down by the supervisory group in charge of the accreditation of graduate medical programs could threaten the freedom of medical institutions' moral choices, unless a key provision to the decision stands.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education voted last week to require abortion training for students training to be gynecologists and obstetricians. Those programs not complying with the specified training could be stripped of their accreditation.

It is imperative that obstetricans and gynecologists receive abortion training, but teaching institutions should also have the right to refuse to offer the instruction. In question is an important provision that arranges for institutions with moral or religious reservations to have the abortion training done at another institution. That exception must be allowed and should be underscored because of its importance.

In the past, obstetricians and gynecologists had been taught only family planning throughout their graduate-level education, and no abortion experience of any type was necessary for a degree.

Although abortion will undoubtedly continue to be a hotly disputed issue, it can hardly be argued that doctors should be completely familiar with those aspects of general health they will deal with most closely. In the case of obstetricians and gynecologists, that includes knowledge of how to perform abortions and advise patients who have undergone them.

Doctors dealing with women's health need to have complete training, and should be required to undergo abortion instruction, in both physical and mental/emotional aspects. But institutions must also be allowed to decide what types of medical care and training they provide. The provision states that those doctors unable to receive abortion training at their chosen institutions must seek abortion training elsewhere, which is certainly fair.

Abortion ethics may be argued until abortions become obsolete, but doctors dealing with women's health should be required to have formal training in abortions. If a physician has moral objections, perhaps he or she chose the wrong field.

But at the same time, educators should be allowed their own freedom of choice about whether to offer that training.