The GEMMA Seminar: A graduate public health course on Global Elimination of Maternal Mortality from Abortion

摘要

Introduction Abortion is one of the most important public health issues in the United States. Yet, public health education has given it minimal attention despite the American Public Health Association's policy that "urges medical, nursing and public health schools, residency training programs and midwifery and physician assistant programs to develop and incorporate materials on the medical need, procedures, technology as well as the history and public health aspects of abortion into current curricula [1]. At least six public health texts provide public health perspectives on abortion, such as morbidity, mortality, case studies, legality, sex selection and post-abortion care [2-8], while a few have brief or no mention of abortion [9,10]. To our knowledge, no US-based school of public health offers a course focused solely on preventing unsafe abortion's contribution to maternal morbidity and mortality. We have developed, pilot tested and expanded a course specifically on abortion and its contribution to maternal mortality worldwide and will describe the course and its reception.