About GDC
Mission
Global Doctors for Choice (GDC) is an international network of physicians who advocate for reproductive rights and access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including safe abortion and contraception. We foster transnational collaboration, support and the exchange of best practices in reproductive health advocacy by connecting physicians from all over the world and from all medical disciplines. Together, we advocate for access to comprehensive reproductive health and rights and defend women’s autonomy to control their reproductive lives.
GDC believes that physicians’ commitment to the scientific process and to the best interests of their patients compels them to advocate on behalf of universal access to comprehensive, evidence-based reproductive health care.
Approach
GDC believes physicians are uniquely positioned to advocate for their patients. They contribute scientific authority, a commitment to their patients’ best interests, familiarity with health systems, and firsthand experience with the devastating consequences of lack of access to reproductive health care and unsafe abortion.
GDC enables doctors’ voices and advocacy efforts to have a broader, collective, and more powerful impact on reproductive health and people’s lives by cultivating a global network of physician-advocates, training physicians as advocates, serving as a resource to transfer best practices in advocacy across borders, and creating opportunities for doctors to engage in policy change initiatives, to learn from one another, and to be active in additional local, regional, and global initiatives.
You can read our full 2016-2020 Strategic Plan here.
Doctors as Advocates
Many physicians dedicate themselves to advocating for their patients and improving women’s lives by safeguarding their health and reproductive rights. Yet most work in settings where it is challenging, emotionally overwhelming, and often dangerous to do so, and thus they can feel isolated in this work.
By creating opportunities for individual doctors across the globe to connect with each other, GDC builds a collective voice for national and international advocacy efforts aimed at improving access to reproductive health care.
Since its inception in 2007, GDC has recruited and mobilized a global community of like-minded physician-advocates. Our network includes abortion providers, public health physicians, obstetrician-gynecologists, psychiatrists, internists, pediatricians, medical students and residents, and others.
Scope
GDC works directly with physician teams in Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Ireland, Kenya, Malta, Mexico, and South Africa, and cultivates the collective voice and work of an international network of physician-advocates via online support systems, including resources, training, and methods to connect with other physician-advocates. Our Coordinating Team is based in the United States. The Board of Managers consists of reproductive health and other experts located across the globe.
Explore our interactive map to learn more about our partners and country-specific work.
GDC is an independent Limited Liability Company (LLC) and Physicians for Reproductive Health, a 501c3 nonprofit, serves as our fiscal sponsor.
