The New York City mayoral abortion training initiative at public hospitals.

BACKGROUND

We set out to describe and understand the first-ever abortion training political initiative on the provision of abortion services and abortion residency training.

STUDY DESIGN

We completed in-depth interviews with 22 participants (response rate of 92%) who have knowledge of abortion training and services in the New York City (NYC) public hospital system before and/or after the initiative. We used grounded theory to describe the initiative's effects.

RESULTS

Respondents identified strategies that helped achieve renovation of abortion facilities, updating of abortion services and protocols, and training of abortion providers. Respondents also identified public health impacts including improvement of abortion services, empowerment of abortion providers, and legitimization of abortion training and services.

CONCLUSION

This NYC political initiative can be a model for other city governments to influence obstetrics and gynecology resident training and the provision of abortion services.