MS4C was started in 1993 by a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco and now has over 10,000 members and chapters at 123 medical schools.  For more information on the national organization, go to www.ms4c.org 

At Yale, our chapter is focused on three main goals:

• Educating and raising awareness of medical students about reproductive rights: Why are they important? How are they in danger?  What can we do to support reproductive rights as clinicians, advocates, and citizens? 
• Ensuring that our curriculum addresses issues of reproductive health in a comprehensive manner at each stage of medical training.
• Promoting exposure to and training in abortion services so that we may contribute to the next generation of abortion providers and sensitize future doctors to this common, yet often stigmatized experience. 

What does this mean in practical terms? 

• We host talks to medical students, often co-sponsored by our local Planned Parenthood
• We host hands-on workshops to help train medical students on reproductive health procedures
• We help plan and attend the regional and national MS4C conferences
• We network with abortion providers and reproductive rights activists
• We offer funding for "reproductive health externships" as exposure opportunities to abortion services (see  http://www.ms4c.org/extern.htm for more information)
• We meet with the curriculum committee to lobby for changes in the medical school curriculum
• We produce and disperse informational hand-outs
• We maintain a strong "pro-choice" visibility on the medical campus
• We work in coalition with other organizations (such as Nursing Students for Choice, the undergraduate Reproductive Action League at Yale (RALY), and Yale Law Students for Reproductive Justice) to support campus-wide events related to reproductive rights
• We screen movies and documentaries
• We work in support of relevant legislation