The American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) Board President-Elect Cathy Collins-Fulea was invited to attend the 7th Annual Academic Leadership Meeting hosted by the Fellowship in Family Planning and the Society of Family Planning, on Thursday, September 12 in Chicago, Ill. The meeting, in conjunction with the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society (AGOS) annual meeting, addresses political interference in medical practice. The meeting’s objectives are as follows:
- Examine the role of the academic leadership community in addressing rising maternal mortality in the United States and critical threats to safe, legal abortion
- Discuss each organization’s role and identify collective interests and priorities pertaining to interference with medical education, medical practice, and the physician-patient relationship in contraception and abortion
- Develop strategies to ensure ongoing communication, coordination, collaboration, and professional support across organizations
- Identify specific opportunities for collaboration among academic leadership in responding to interference with medical practice, training, and research
- Identify leadership opportunities to leverage the broader academic community
Collins-Fulea, who will represent ACNM, will have an opportunity to present ACNM’s position surrounding contraception and abortion. She will highlight that ACNM and its members stand for improving access to quality care and coverage for women and newborns. We support common-sense policy solutions that ensure all people have access to a full-range of preventive, reproductive, and sexual health services, including full access to abortion services and that work to expand clinician scope of practice laws to include advance practice clinicians (APC) as abortion providers.
Organizations such as (Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Society of Family Planning (SFP) North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (NASPAG) Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWOHNN) American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society (AGOS) American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG) Society for Academic Specialists in General Obstetrics and Gynecology (SASGOG) Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology (CREOG) Council of University Chairs of Obstetrics and Gynecology (CUCOG) Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics (APGO) ) will also be in attendance. This meeting is an example of how valuable it is to partner with each other to have critical discussions on women’s health and where healthcare professionals, especially midwives, can be represented.
