Reproductive Health Service Corps
In the face of challenges to reproductive rights, California has launched the Reproductive Health and Services Corps (RHSC) to safeguard and enhance access to reproductive healthcare. Over the next four years, a consortium of leaders in sexual and reproductive health -- including the ACTIONS program -- will work together to improve access to abortion care and training and diversify the state’s reproductive health workforce.
The RHSC is developing and strengthening training pathways for the entire healthcare team — expanding their knowledge and capacity to provide abortion care. Simultaneously, it updates our training institutions while harnessing our existing talent and expertise. The $20 million allocated to RHSC represents a historic investment in the reproductive health care workforce, with an additional $20 million for scholarships and loan repayment available for learners through the state Clinical Infrastructure Fund.
The consortium is coordinated by Training in Early Abortion for Comprehensive Healthcare (TEACH) and includes TEACH; California State University East Bay, Department of Nursing; Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health (NSRH); and University of California, San Francisco’s primary care advanced practice nursing specialties, Black Midwifery Fellowship, and Abortion Care Training Incubator for Outstanding Nurse Scholars (ACTIONS) program.
California Future of Abortion Council
ACTIONS is proud to participate in the California Future of Abortion Council (CA FAB Council), a coalition representing sexual and reproductive health care providers, reproductive rights and reproductive justice advocacy organizations, legal and policy experts, researchers, and advocates, with the support of California policymakers. In September 2021, with the constitutional right to abortion facing the most severe threats since Roe v. Wade, the CA FAB Council convened to recommend policy proposals supporting equitable and affordable access to abortion care for Californians and all who seek care here. One of these proposals was AB 1918, which establishes a reproductive health service corps to expand access to reproductive health care, including abortion care, to all Californians. This bill was conceptualized and championed by ACTIONS predoctoral fellow Bethany Golden, MS, RN, CNM, who is pursuing her doctorate degree at the UCSF School of Nursing. Learn more about this effort in Science of Caring.
Nursing the Abortion Curriculum in California
In Summer 2022 Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health awarded ACTIONS Project Director Nikki Lanshaw, MPH a grant from its CORE Funding to assess the current state of abortion care training in California nursing programs. To our knowledge, a state-wide survey to assess abortion curriculum in California nursing programs has never been published, nor have baccalaureate programs been included in surveys about the availability of or desire for abortion training in their programs.
Sacramento Perinatal Birth Equity
In Spring 2021, ACTIONS partnered with the UCSF Institute for Health Policy Studies to conduct a survey and interviews of practicing midwives in the Sacramento region and conduct follow-up in-depth interviews with these midwives. Our report on the results was published in August 2022 and presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in October 2022. The findings have informed a larger statewide survey of California midwives launched in 2022.
So You Want to Be a Midwife?
In Spring 2021 ACTIONS partnered with Jennie Joseph at Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery in Florida to launch a national survey of people of color interested in becoming midwives. Our survey received nearly 1,000 responses. Two abstracts based on this data were accepted and presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in October 2022. We have published two papers from this data, and are writing a third, along with supervising a master’s student’s thesis using these data. We also received such an overwhelming willingness from survey participants to share their stories that we created a website with Commonsense to share some of these “future midwife” stories: https://commonsensemidwifery.org/future-midwife-stories/
