Continued lack of abortion training is disheartening

From 1985 to 1987 I was a family medicine resident in Toronto, Ont. I wanted to do one of my electives in abortion care and was denied this by my program. It disheartens me greatly to learn from Drs Myran and Bardsley¹ that in 2018 abortion care is not a routine part of family medicine training, and that residents and graduates have to find their own training after completing a family medicine residency, as I did. Abortion is an essential medical service and it is legal in Canada. How can it be that family medicine training programs still do not provide abortion training as part of the core competencies?

I hope that in 30 years residents will not be saying the same thing about training in medical assistance in dying and end-of-life care. These are fundamental and essential parts of life, medical practice, and medical care. Family doctors should be doing this work and should receive the appropriate education and training to support them in doing it. Period.

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