OBGYN 81Q: Perspectives on the Abortion Experience in Western Fiction
General Education Requirements
Please note: OBGYN 81Q has been canceled for 2023-24.
Course Description
Abortion care is one of the oldest and most controversial challenges of our time. As Marshall McLuhan said, "the medium is the message"; this course will explore how the media deliveres messages about abortion care as well as the broader questions of how abortion care and related issues in reproductive health and justice are fundamentally integrated into the societal fabric of U.S. and global societies. Examination of how abortion care is portrayed in novels and films provides the student of history, anthropology, and biology with unique insights into not only the author or director's perspectives, but also into societal attitudes and mores. Course texts will include novels, stories, social media and film excerpts. You will be asked to write essays in response to specific perspectives raised by the readings or viewing for that week and complete a final project on a topic of your choice related to one of the texts.
Meet the Instructor: Erica P. Cahill, MD
Erica P. Cahill, MD, MS(c), is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Complex Family Planning at Stanford University. She is the Co-Director of the Medical Students Reproductive Health Block, the Assistant Fellowship Director for the Fellowship in Complex Family Planning and course director of the Ob-Gyn Residency and Benign Gynecology rotation. Her research interests include addressing health disparities in perinatal and reproductive health through education and technology. She is committed to creating and supporting medically accurate reproductive policy. Her current research includes developing an AntiRacist Pregnancy Preferences Tool to address racism and other trauma in reproductive care. She also co-hosts a reproductive health podcast called The V Word and is active on social media as @drericacahill. Check out the podcast here.
