Conscience, Competence, and Compliance: A Proposal for Ethical and Legal Reform of ACGME Abortion Training Standards Post-Dobbs
Following Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the ACGME’s abortion training standards face growing tensions with state laws and the conscience rights of physicians and institutions. This article examines these conflicts through bioethical principles and virtue ethics, arguing that medical education should cultivate both clinical competence and professional integrity.
It proposes four reforms: separating federal graduate medical education funding from abortion training, aligning requirements with state laws, protecting conscience-based institutional exemptions, and adopting an opt-in framework for trainees. Through alternative training pathways, these proposals seek to maintain educational rigor while respecting moral convictions and legal restrictions, supporting a more ethically pluralistic approach to medical education.