M.D. Training for Abortions on the Decline : Medicine: Abortion foes cheer result of survey, but medical school professors warn of possible dangers.

The percentage of hospital training programs that require future obstetrician-gynecologists to learn how to perform first-trimester abortions has fallen by almost half since 1985, according to a nationwide survey released Monday.

The drop in the number of programs requiring the training eventually might bring about a shortage in the number of doctors able to do abortions, said Dr. Trent MacKay, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UC Davis. MacKay released the results of the survey to abortion providers at the National Abortion Federation’s annual two-day convention in San Diego.

“I think there is a real concern to having committed physicians who are available to provide abortion services,” MacKay said. “There are relatively few mentor programs around because mentors are dying off or are retiring.”

In 1985, a poll found that 23% of training hospitals with obstetrics/gynecology programs require residents to learn how to provide both first- and second-trimester abortions. MacKay’s poll, which surveyed 268 training programs in September and October, found the percentage for first-trimester abortions had fallen to 12%. And only 7% required training for second-trimester abortions, he found.

The survey revealed that most residency programs offer the procedure as an option rather than a requirement because many students fear harassment by anti-abortionists or morally question the procedure, MacKay said.

Induced abortion is the most commonly performed operation in the United States, MacKay said. More than 40% of women have the operation before age 45, he said.

“Some residents feel training for elective abortion is unnecessary because they have training for spontaneous abortion, and many of the residents are just not interested in training,” MacKay said. “The abortion training situation may get worse before it gets better.”

UC San Diego Medical Center is among those where the training is optional.

“I think abortion is a very personal issue, and no one should do or learn how to do them if they don’t want to get involved,” said Dr. Robert Resnik, chairman of the department of reproductive medicine at UCSD.

The handful of abortion opponents who picketed outside the hotel cheered the news that fewer doctors might be available in the future to perform abortions.

“These people are more interested in making money from killing babies than they are in women’s welfare,” said Cheryl Smith, 36, of Santee. “They don’t have a legitimate health care practice.”