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Med school abortion discussion productive, students say

Class will likely continue

An abortion discussion held in a medical class last month presented un-biased information about how to speak with patients about their pregnancy options, UA students and a professor said.

Tamsen Bassford, a director of the University of Arizona's social and behavioral medical science class, said the two-hour abortion discussion held in her class on April 19 was productive and respectful of students' pro-life and pro-choice opinions.

"I think we all feel this was a success, and I anticipate we'll keep it in next year," said Bassford, who is also the assistant dean of student affairs for the College of Medicine.

Members of Medical Students for Choice requested that information on counseling patients about abortion be placed back in the curriculum. The topic was dropped from the class about eight years ago because the teaching method was determined to be ineffective.

Bassford said the 38 student evaluations about the course stated they appreciated their classmates' respect of different opinions and the role playing portion of the course. About 60 to 70 students attended class that day, Bassford said.

'The evaluations were really by and large extremely positive," she said.

Larry Moher, one of the class's directors, played a doctor who had to counsel a patient about her pregnancy options during the role playing session. Moher was unavailable for comment.

Bassford said the class's directors decided a role playing exercise would best make students understand how they would feel counseling a patient about abortion.

"As much as possible we're trying to help students picture what it is like to sit in a room with a patient - 15 years from now," she said.

Mehri McKellar, founder of the UA's Medical Students for Choice, played the pregnant patient during the role play session. McKellar's character was a medical student who was busy with an internship.

"It never turned out to be a huge soapbox debate," said McKellar, a fourth-year medical student.

McKellar's character decided to choose to have an abortion after she was counseled by Moher.

Pro-life students stated in the feedback that they wanted a pro-life doctor to discuss how to provide patients with abortion information while he may not personally believe in terminating pregnancies, McKellar said.

Other students stated they wanted to learn about partial-birth abortions as well as how to perform the abortion procedure, McKellar said.

Mari Walsh, a second-year medical student, said she liked the role playing because Moher did not express his personal feelings about abortion while counseling McKellar.

"He (Moher) did a really good job of talking to the student with the role play and not showing the rest of the class what his opinion was," Walsh said.

She said students could relate to the role playing session, which focused attention to the counseling methods.

"Whether I was pro-life or pro-choice it was an eye opener," Walsh said. "No matter what side you stand on - what you say to a patient will really influence them."

Elizabeth Schultz, the Medical Students for Choice co-director, said she was happy the discussion was productive and did not turn into a moral debate.

"We feel that it is extremely important and that we are able to get this into curriculum... reflects that the administration does really listen to student feedback and what students want to learn about," said Schultz, who is a first year medical student.

About 1.5 million women in the United States have an abortion each year, Schultz said.

"Its not our role as physicians to judge our patients," Schultz said adding that physicians need to provide the best information to their patient. "Whether we agree with it or not is not relevant."

Rachael Myer can be reached at Rachael.Myer@wildcat.arizona.edu.