The mission of Boston Medical Center

Sounds really cozy. Words like "respect," "empower" and "collaborate" abound.

Boston Medical Center ( 720 Harrison Avenue, 11th Floor, Boston, MA 02118) is an extraordinary community of health care providers devoted to the proposition that every person, regardless of his or her social or economic circumstances, deserves the best health care.

That concern and devotion doesn't apply to "every person" however, because the weakest and most abused, and most likely minority, is the unborn child, and look at the expansion of that mission.

Boston University and Boston Medical Center have a long history of providing family planning and reproductive health care services to the community as well as medical student and resident education in family planning. The Family Planning Fellowship at Boston University was established in 2001 under the leadership of Dr. Phillip Stubblefield and Dr. Lynn Borgatta. The program has graduated fellows who have become leaders in the field and has provided vital research in the areas of contraception, pregnancy termination and induction. Since the start of the fellowship, the clinical and research programs have continued to grow and inter-departmental collaboration has continued to develop. . . [pretty photos]

Consistent with the mission of community service, Boston Medical Center has provided abortion services since legalization. All services are provided at Boston Medical Center. The medical center is actively expanding, with both new buildings and renovations of historic buildings.

The medical campus includes the hospitals, the School of Medicine, biomedical research buildings, and the School of Public Health, which allows almost all activities to take place within a several block radius. . .

Within Boston Medical Center our program enjoys a strong collaborative relationship with the Department of Family Medicine. Family medicine residents rotate through family planning and abortion services.

Several midwives and nurse-practitioners are or have been medical abortion providers, and have collaborated on research projects concerning medical abortion and post-partum contraception. . .

Research projects include a broad range of topics, including all aspects of clinical contraceptive use, abortion techniques, behavioral assessments and assessment of decision-making, and evaluation of domestic or international family planning programs. Basic science research is also an option. Dr. Deborah Anderson leads the group of immunology researchers, and Dr. Wendy Kuohung in the Reproductive Endocrinology Division has moved her laboratory to BU. Other basic science liaisons are encouraged.

Research and Clinical Interests

• Preterm birth and prevention
• Fertility and women's health
• Techniques of surgical abortion
• Early medical abortion and treatment of pregnancy failure
• Technique of labor induction abortion
• Basic science: fetal cell transfer in early pregnancy
• On-contraceptive benefits of contraceptives
• Attitudes of women of different ethnic groups toward contraceptive use

Current Faculty Research Projects

• Clinical trial to assess the safety and contraceptive efficacy of two doses of the ultra low dose levonorgestrel contraceptive intrauterine systems
• Clinical trial to investigate the efficacy and safety of the transdermal contraceptive patch
• Trends in post-partum sterilization: delayed post-partum sterilization and use of Essure (permanent infertility, long term results on health unknown)
• Effect of expanded prenatal education of sterilization utilization
• Clinical trial of the use of Mifepristone prior to induction abortion
• Clinical trial of priming prior to induction abortion
• Continuation rates for Implanon started post-abortion and interval

And finally, "After the abortion you will have up to an hour to rest and recover."