While the new policy may not affect Harvard, Gienapp says implementation of the regulations has met resistance elsewhere.

"We've obviously been in dialogue with a number of Catholic hospitals that did not like the way the standard was being instigated," he says.

Judie A. Brown, president of the American Life League, a national anti-abortion group, says her organization has encouraged doctors and supporters across the country to contact the ACGME and voice their opposition to the decision.

"[Hospitals] should not be put in the position where they have to send residents elsewhere to learn something that is not moral or ethical," Brown says.

But Gienapp says the council has also received several letters from medical students voicing their support of the new policy.

"I definitely think it's a step in the right direction," says Christina A. Kowalewski '95, Co-chair of Harvard-Radcliffe Students for Choice. 'Over the past decade, the number of medical schools that have been teaching abortion has been reduced, and I certainly think the medical profession has an obligation to teach its rising physicians how to perform medical procedures."

Alice L. Kirkman, public information specialist for American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, says the organization strongly supported institution of the policy. "We believe that abortion training needed to get back into the mainstream of medical training," she says.

Sue, director of public affairs at Preterm, an abortion clinic in Boston, says incorporating abortion training into the medical curriculum should make it more acceptable to the public. Preterm policy prevents her from revealing her last name.

"It will make it no more important than any other surgical procedure, which is how it should be," she says.

The ACGME, Gienapp says, adopted the policy to make abortion a safer procedure through better training of physicians.

"Several women die each year going through a procedure that is relatively simple," Gienapp says.

Despite the controversy the policy may have stirred up, the ACGME expects hospitals to fully cooperate with its implementation, Gienapp says.

Hospitals that refuse to follow the revised guidelines can be put under review by the ACGME. In a worst case scenario, the council may strip the hospitals of their accreditation, says Gienapp.

OB-GYN residents must be trained in a program accredited by the ACGME to become board-certified and licensed to practice. And only accredited hospitals can qualify for federal reimbursements to fund its residency training.

Gienapp says hospitals will not face a large financial burden carrying out the policy's requirements. "[Learning the procedure] may just be incorporated into the course of their training," he says.