BM88: Demand for comprehensive teaching on abortion in human medicine degree programmes

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Section of the United Nations states that women’s reproductive health is a human right and adds: ‘This means that States have obligations to respect, protect and fulfill rights related to women’s sexual and reproductive health.’ [1]. This human right must of course be granted to all pregnant people and therefore to women, as well as trans*, inter, non-binary and agender people. Adequate health care requires a medical curriculum that enables medical and nursing students to perform abortions across the board at the end of their studies and imparts unbiased counselling skills.

The availability of medical abortions in Germany, and Europe in general, is still not satisfactorily guaranteed across the board. There is also no uniform quality of teaching on pregnancies and abortion in medical and nursing studies throughout Europe, not to mention the opportunity to gain practical experience. 

Abortions are still socially stigmatised and a fatal consequence of this is that this stigma is reflected in teaching, meaning that medical and nursing students at many Higher Education Institutions are not sufficiently informed about the types and procedures of abortion. The integration of abortion into medical and nursing training is essential to ensure comprehensive healthcare. The requested measures will help to improve the quality of medical and nursing training and ensure better access to safe abortions.

ESU supports the ‘Motion to the federal and state governments for the integration of abortions into the curriculum for medical and nursing students and specialist training’ of the ‘Federal Representation of Medical Students in Germany’ (Bundesverband der Medizinstudierenden Deutschlands, bvmd). 

Fzs together with the European Students Union therefore demand all across Europe: 

1. mandatory basic training on the legal situation and on the possibilities of abortion, as well as the teaching of counselling skills for this.

2. the before mentioned training content to be included as a mandatory part of the medical and nursing curriculum (e.g integration into the National Competence-Based Catalogue of Learning Objectives (NKLM in Germany))

3. the acquisition of theoretical and practical skills as a mandatory part of relevant specialist medical and nursing training.

[1] https://www.ohchr.org/en/women/sexual-and-reproductive-health-and-rights

Proposers: fzs

Seconders: ÖH, FEF, UDU, LSVb, USI, NUS UK, LÍS, CREUP