The United States is facing a critical shortage of abortion providers and abortion services. Few hospitals offer abortions, and since medical residents train primarily at hospitals, few residents are currently being trained. Few nursing schools include abortion in their curriculum. Many women who want abortions cannot get them , due to shortages of providers, lack of funding, or legal barriers, such as parental consent laws and mandatory waiting periods.
Physician assistants can be part of the solution to the crisis of declining abortion services.
Physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and nurse-midwives, if trained to provide first trimester abortion, could significantly expand the pool of abortion providers. However, in many states physician assistants have prescriptive authority. It is a medical procedure that all health care professionals need to be familiar with. This is a critical moment to begin organizing physician assistants to expand our scope of practice and to develop support within the profession for any physician assistant who chooses to become involved in providing abortion services. All rights reserved.