Department of Public Health

Abortion Facts and Resources: A Guide for Medical Providers

Original release date: March 19, 2025; Termination date: March 18, 2028.

Please take the pretest and then view the webinar
(the link to the webinar is provided at the end of the pretest)

Download the webinar slides as full page slides or in handout format.

Continuing Education Credit(s)

This webinar has been approved for 1.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.

After you have viewed the webinar please complete this form to evaluate the activity and request a certificate.

• Physicians will receive a CME Certificate
• Other learners will receive a Certificate of Attendance. This meets the continuing education requirements of many boards.

Webinar Overview

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Office of Women’s Health offers this training to enhance learners’ knowledge by providing factual evidence on abortion, impacts of abortion access on health and well-being, harms of criminalization, and California resources providers can use to facilitate abortion access for their patients and populations they serve. The training will dispel misinformation about abortion and enables physicians and other healthcare providers to streamline referral processes for patients needing pregnancy options counseling and/or abortion care.

Target Audience

This training is designed for California physicians, advanced practice clinicians, nurses, and staff who serve people with the capacity for pregnancy. It is also relevant for healthcare providers in other states, who can refer their patients to California for care they cannot receive at home.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of the webinar, participants will will feel more confident in their ability to:

1. Provide medically accurate information about abortion.
2. Dispel misinformation about abortion.
3. Explain the difference between emergency contraception and medication abortion, and how these pills work.
4. Discuss the public health benefits of legal and accessible abortion and the harms of abortion criminalization.
5. List the main categories of abortion care service resources provided on the LA County Safe Have website.
6. Report increased confidence in referring clients and patients and community members to abortion information, care, and related resources.
7. Streamline referral processes for patients needing pregnancy options counseling and/or abortion care.

Presenters

Dr. Baldwin (she/her) is a preventive medicine specialist. Her team works to improve gender health equity, including access to abortion care through the LAC Abortion Safe Haven Project. Dr. Baldwin has a long history of work supporting marginalized populations, including as medical director of Planned Parenthood of Southern AZ and California Family Health Council (aka Essential Access Health), as an abortion provider at Southern California Planned Parenthood affiliates, and as a member of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America National Medical Committee. She ran the nation’s first specialized clinic for human trafficking survivors from 2005 -2012 and co-founded the international organization HEAL Trafficking, serving as President from 2013 -2020. Dr. Baldwin has led work developing trauma informed protocols for health care settings and currently advocates for inclusion of sex workers, immigrant workers, and harm reduction approaches in public health-based anti-trafficking strategies. She has published numerous articles and book chapters and received many awards for her work, including the Felicia Stewart Advocacy Award from the American Public Health Association’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Section.

Caitlin O'Connor is a primary consultant on the Abortion Safe Haven Pilot Project. In her previous role, she served as the Title X Program Manager a UCLA OB/GYN Clinic, where she provided patient-centered family planning counseling. She holds a Master's in Public Health from UCLA and previously served as a Peace Corps Community Health Volunteer in Eswatini.

Resources

• Abortion Safe Haven, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Includes multilingual resource guide for abortion information, clinical services, mental health support, and more, along with Abortion FAQs, How to Pay for Abortion, and How to Spot Crisis Pregnancy Centers. http://ph.lacounty.gov/owh/Abortion/index.htm
• ACCESS Reproductive Justice. Free and confidential information, funding, practical support, referrals, advocacy, and peer counseling, specializing in abortion and pregnancy support. accessrj.org
• CA Reproductive Health Service Corps CA's investment to train abortion providers and safeguard/enhance access to reproductive healthcare. https://reprohealthservicecorps.org
• California Latinas for Reproductive Justice. Abortion is Healthcare. Telemedicine and abortion information in short video format for patients in English and Spanish. californialatinas.org/about-us/abortion-is-healthcare
• Innovating Education (formerly the Ryan Program) Free curricula and learning tools about sexual and reproductive health, including abortion, in order to transform health professions education. https://www.innovating-education.org
• Sam’s medication abortion zine. (2019, April 8). Reproductive Health Access Project. https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/resource/sams-medication-abortion-zine

References

• Aiken, A. R. A., Wells, E. S., Gomperts, R., & Scott, J. G. (2024). Provision of medications for self-managed abortion before and after the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. JAMA, 331(18), 1558–1564. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2024.4266
• ACLU Southern California. (2023). Abortion Care in California. https://www.aclusocal.org/know-your-rights/abortion-care-california#minors
• American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Adolescence. (2022). The Adolescent's Right to Confidential Care When Considering Abortion. Pediatrics, 150(3). doi: 10.1542/peds.2022-058780
• Anderson, E. M., Cowan, S. K., Higgins, J. A., Schmuhl, N. B., & Wautlet, C. K. (2021, December 14). Willing but unable: Physicians’ referral knowledge as barriers to abortion care. SSM - Population Health. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827321002779
• Beasley, A. D., Olatunde, A., Cahill, E. P., & Shaw, K. A. (2023, April 1). New gaps and urgent needs in graduate medical education and training in abortion. Academic medicine: journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36656271/
• Benson Gold, R. Lessons from before Roe: will past be prologue? Issues Brief (Alan Guttmacher Inst). 2003;(5):1-4. PMID: 12807128.
• Farin SM, Hoehn-Velasco L, Pesko MF. The Impact of Legal Abortion on Maternal Mortality. IZA Institute of Labor Economics. October 2022. https://docs.iza.org/dp15657.pdf
• Foster Green, D. (2022, June 30). UCSF Turnaway Study shows impact of abortion access on well-being. University of California, San Francisco. https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2022/06/423161/ucsf-turnaway-study-shows-impact-abortion-access
• Gemmill, A., Margerison, C. E., Stuart, E. A., & Bell, S. O. (2024). Infant deaths after Texas’ 2021 ban on abortion in early pregnancy. JAMA Pediatrics, 178(8), 784–791. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.0885
• Guttmacher Institute. (2025, January 29). Interactive map: US abortion policies and access after Roe. Guttmacher. https://states.guttmacher.org/policies
• Guttmacher Institute. (2021). Appendix Table 21. https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/report_downloads/pregnancies-births-abortions-us-1973-2017-appendix-tables.pdf
• Kunins H, Rosenfield A. Abortion: a legal and public health perspective. Annu Rev Public Health. 1991;12:361-82. doi: 10.1146/annurev.pu.12.050191.002045.
• Maddow-Zimet I & Kost K. (2021). Pregnancies, Births and Abortions in the United States, 1973–2017: National and State Trends by Age. Guttmacher Institute. https://www.guttmacher.org/report/pregnancies-births-abortions-in-united-states-1973-2017 and https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/report_downloads/pregnancies-births-abortions-us-1973-2017-appendix-tables.pdf
• Mark NDE, Wu LL. (2022). More comprehensive sex education reduced teen births: Quasi-experimental evidence. Proc Natl Acad Sci, 119(8):e2113144119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2113144119.
• Nambiar, A., Patel, S., Santiago-Munoz, P., Spong, C. Y., & Nelson, D. B. (2022). Maternal morbidity and fetal outcomes among pregnant women at 22 weeks’ gestation or less with complications in 2 Texas hospitals after legislation on abortion. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, 227(4), 648-650.e1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2022.06.060
• ProPublica. (January 2025) Health Care: Abortion. https://www.propublica.org/topics/abortion
• Ralph, L. J., Baba, C. F., Biggs, M. A., McNicholas, C., Hagstrom Miller, A., & Grossman, D. (2024). Comparison of no-test telehealth and in-person medication abortion. JAMA, 332(11), 898–905. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2024.10680
• Rosenbaum L. Perilous politics — Morbidity and mortality in the pre-Roe era. (2019). N Engl J Med. 381 (10); 893 - 895.
• Verma, N., & Grossman, D. (2023). Self-managed abortion in the United States. Current Obstetrics and Gynecology Reports, 12(2), 70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13669-023-00354-x

Accreditation Statement

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is accredited by the California Medical Association (CMA) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health designates this enduring activity for a maximum of 1.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Other learners may receive a Certificate of attendance. According to the California Board of Registered Nursing, Continuing Medical Education is acceptable for meeting RN continuing education requirements, as long as the course is Category 1, and has been taken within the appropriate time frames.

Disclosure

No relevant financial relationships were disclosed by the authors or the planners. This activity is offered by an accredited CMA-CME provider and is not commercially supported.  

Contact Information

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Office of Women's Health Abortion Safe Haven Project: AbortionLAC@ph.lacounty.gov.