‘The future of abortion’: This OBGYN residency program has trained thousands of doctors to kill

A research article published by Journal Contraception, “Twenty Years of the Ryan Residency Training Program in Abortion and Family Planning,” published in 2021, revealed that an ever-growing, well-funded abortion training program had, at that time, trained more than 7,000 obstetricians and gynecologists in how to intentionally kill preborn human beings by induced abortion, with upwards of 100 residency training programs nationwide since its founding in 1999. The article noted that this number of trained residents is “a more than 3-fold increase since the 10-year evaluation” (emphasis added) and that the program had successfully “integrate[d] abortion and family planning into residency training, almost doubling the number of programs since the publication of the Ryan Program’s outcomes at 10 years.”

Thousands of physicians, who promise to “do no harm,” are training to do very real harm with the help of this abortion training residency program based at a university that receives billions in federal taxpayer dollars toward its research programs.

Key Takeaways:

• In 20 years, the Ryan Residency Training Program in Abortion, based at the Bixby Center for Global Health at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF), reportedly trained over 7,000 OBGYNs in how to kill preborn children by abortion. The University of California receives billions each year in federal grants toward research programs.
• More than 100 residency programs participate in training, including even some Catholic institutions.
• The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), which sets standards for residency and fellowship programs, requires abortion training to be provided by medical schools in order for them to achieve accreditation.
• A high percentage of these Ryan abortion residency programs partner with freestanding abortion facilities, including Planned Parenthood.
• The Ryan Residency Training Program in Abortion and Family Planning is supported financially by groups such as the Gates, Hewlett, and Packard Foundations — but it is the Susan G. Thompson Buffett Foundation (billionaire Warren Buffett) who funds the lion’s share.

The residency program, named after the late Kenneth John Ryan, MD (who once called for private funds to experiment on aborted children), was formed after it became clear in the mid-1990s that abortionists were beginning to “age out” — resulting in what the industry claimed was a shortage of abortion purveyors in the country. An archived page of the Ryan Residency website states, “In 1996, recognizing this shortcoming in resident education, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) mandated that ob-gyn residency education must include access to experience with induced abortion.”

In 2024, the Ryan Residency website claimed there were 118 Ryan Programs across the United States. Out of the 7,000+ residents trained, reportedly about 40% of them now “provide routine abortion care for their patients.”

According to the 2021 research article, by 2020, 60% “of all university-based or academic allopathic ob-gyn residency programs in the United States and 37% of all allopathic programs had Ryan Programs,” with 14 of them in California alone, according to a Healthforce Center at UCSF 2023 report.

The article also noted:

The Ryan Program typically funds programs for 2 years, and provides logistical support and expertise for programs to establish a dedicated rotation for training. Ryan Programs average 6 residents (2–11) per year, and each clinical rotation typically lasts 1 month.

“Common factors that can delay Ryan Program implementation include hiring faculty to lead the effort, finding collaborating abortion clinics to supplement training, institutional leadership changes, and state politics,” the Ryan website states.

Ryan Residency trains Catholic OBGYNs

Shockingly, the Ryan program says it is even training residents in Catholic OBGYN residency programs.

The Ryan Residency website states:

The Ryan Program model of training exists at Catholic ob-gyn residency programs.

In one example, residents receive required, opt-out family planning training at a collaborating Planned Parenthood clinic. In another example, a faculty member at an established Ryan Program serves as the Ryan Program director for residents at a nearby Catholic program, training these residents at the academic teaching hospital where she is based.

Catholic residency programs can pose unique challenges in terms of ensuring leadership is supportive and collaborating partners can accommodate resident trainees. Despite this, nearly half of Catholic programs have some level of family planning training.

The Ryan Program is well connected in the faith-based community and can help you explore what options may exist for establishing a Ryan Program with a Catholic residency.

Ryan Residency trains OBGYNs in pro-life states 

The Ryan Residency website instructs applicants that they can still “apply for help to establish training partnerships with ob-gyn residency programs in states where abortion is not restricted,” even if those applicants are located in states that restrict induced abortion — the intentional and direct killing of preborn human beings. “If a program is in a state that restricts abortion they can establish an out-of-state training partnership dedicated to clinical training in all methods of induced abortion and expand abortion and contraception services in the teaching hospital to the extent allowed by law.”

The site notes that “[a]s of Jan 7, 2025, 51 obstetrics and gynecology (ob-gyn) residency programs and over 1150 residents are in states that ban abortion at all gestations (17% of all programs). This includes 8 Ryan Programs (and approximately 230 residents). In addition, another 28 ob-gyn programs and over 550 residents are in states that ban abortion at 6 weeks (9% of all programs). This includes 7 Ryan Programs (and approximately 180 residents).”

Part of the reason for this is that the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), which sets standards for residency and fellowship programs, has “required” abortion training to be provided by medical schools in order for them to achieve accreditation, as Live Action News previously reported.

The Ryan Residency website notes that the reason the training program was established was “To help programs meet the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) mandate for routine abortion training in obstetrics and gynecology (ob-gyn) training programs” and “works directly with ob-gyn residency programs to integrate training in abortion and contraception care (family planning) as a required rotation. All programs establish or expand abortion services in their teaching hospitals and may also create new partnerships with local clinics to train residents.”

This map below, shown on the Ryan website, indicates several ACGME accredited programs in states that restrict the intentional killing of preborn children.

Planned Parenthood’s director of programs and operations, Kristin Simonson, stated that “Between June 2022, when Roe was overturned, and the end of June 2023, 125 out-of-state doctors did residencies in programs that use the Ryan Residency Training Program model.”

Collaboration with abortion facilities 

According to the research article, “a higher proportion of programs now collaborate with a freestanding clinic: in 2009, 21 (49%) compared to 63 (71%) in 2020. This increase in part reflects the higher number of Ryan Programs in states where abortion services and training are severely restricted in the teaching hospitals,” the authors wrote in 2020.

Live Action News previously documented this collaboration — not only in abortion training, but also in the ghoulish acquisition of aborted fetal parts used for research.

A quick Google search revealed that Planned Parenthood is associated with several Ryan programs at various locations:

• The Stony Brook Medicine Ryan Residency Training Program
• University of Pittsburgh UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital
• UC San Diego School of Medicine
• Cedars Sinai
• University of South Florida (USF)
• Brigham and Women’s
• University of New Mexico
• University of Louisville School of Medicine
• Stanford Medicine

The founding of Ryan Residency 

The program was founded in 1999 and is “currently led by Dr. Jody Steinauer and is based at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco [UCSF],” according to its website.

According to Bixby, the program’s mission “is to increase and strengthen training opportunities in abortion and contraception for residents in obstetrics and gynecology and to encourage and support residents’ exposure to evidence-based clinical care and research in the field of family planning.”

Originally, the Bixby center (co-founded by abortionists Philip Darney and Nancy Padian) began as the Center for Reproductive Epidemiology at UCSF and later changed its name “to the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health and Policy following a major endowment from the Bixby Foundation to add UCSF to the Bixby Centers at UCLA and Berkeley.”

That same year (1999), the Ryan Residency Training Program was founded by abortionist Dr. Uta Landy, a former director of the National Abortion Federation and recipient of Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s infamous Margaret Sanger Award. Landy reportedly established “one of the first abortion clinics in New York after legalization in 1970, and became the first executive director of the National Abortion Federation in 1979.” She was recently caught in undercover footage from the Center for Medical Progress, talking about late-term abortions.

Bixby Center founder Darney created the model for the Ryan program, and Landy ensured its advancement to “one hundred teaching hospitals across the USA and Canada,” according to the website.

The funding of Ryan Residency 

The aforementioned research article was funded by an “anonymous” donor and described the Ryan Residency as “a privately-funded, national initiative designed to support ob-gyn departments to formally integrate such training.”

In 2022, Anderson-Rogers Foundation Inc., granted the program $40,000 for “abortion training for medical residents.” In 2023, Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation granted the residency $102,304, and the Samuel J Gorlitz Foundation granted $1,000, specifically to the “School of Medicine Ryan Residency Training Program.”

Other known abortion ‘philanthropists’ who regularly fund these programs at UCSF include the (Bill and Melinda) Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation — all groups known for funding other pro-abortion efforts globally.

The Buffett Foundation 

One of the primary funders of the abortion training program has been the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, founded in 1964 by billionaire Warren Buffett.

Inside Philanthropy described Buffett as a “vanguard” of abortion access, writing in 2021 that the Buffett Foundation was the  “foremost player in th[e] space” of  “abortion access and reproductive health and rights in the U.S.,” along with the Packard and Hewlett Foundations.

“STBF has given out more than $5 billion overall, including hundreds of millions to the various branches of Planned Parenthood. The foundation receives annual infusions of Berkshire Hathaway stock from Buffett, with such gifts also going to the Gates Foundation and the three foundations controlled by his children,” IP noted.

Mother Jones claimed, “Buffett’s main academic partner (receiving at least $88 million from 2001 to 2014) has been the University of California-San Francisco” — home of the Bixby Center and the Ryan Residency abortion training program.

Despite Buffett’s efforts to frequently remain an “anonymous” donor, evidence shows that his dollars go directly to Ryan Residency programs. A 2010 New York Times Magazine report noted that “The money for the Ryan and the Family Planning Fellowship comes from one foundation and from one family. The donor has chosen to remain anonymous, which helps to explain why there’s been so little publicity about the pro-choice strategy of bringing abortion into academic medicine. It has been covered by a veil of semisecrecy” (emphasis added).

Author Emily Bazelon added, “At the same time, as the Ryan and the fellowship have expanded to dozens of institutions, many people have come to know about the source of funding. In the course of my reporting, two doctors who had not done the fellowship themselves, but who work in universities, volunteered to me that the money for the programs comes from the Buffett Foundation. They meant the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation” (emphases added).

A 2018 University of California report revealed that the Buffett Foundation gave $78 million to UC in past years: $52 million for the Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program; $5.3 million so that UC’s Davis, UCLA, San Diego and Irvine residents could participate in Ryan; and $8.6 million towards the thoroughly debunked yet widely touted pro-abortion Turnaway Study at UCSF’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health Center (ANSIRH).

The “secrecy” continues, with Buffett hiding his abortion training grants. Still, year after year, the Susan T. Buffett Foundation has granted millions to the Regents at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) for “program support,” but where that funding goes is not specified. In addition, Buffett funds specific Ryan Residency programs at various universities.

Defunding more than just Planned Parenthood

According to the University of California, federal funds are UC’s “single most important source of support for research – in FY 2018, UC was awarded $2.95 billion in federal research awards, more than half of the university’s total research awards.”

Attorney Mike Seibel, who investigated the ties between the University of New Mexico’s (UMN) fetal harvesting program along with UCSF and the Ryan program, told Live Action News, “UCSF is the mastermind of abortion policy within the United States. If [they were defunded] it would be a significant blow against the nerve center of the abortion industry.”

Seibel sees this abortion training program as the most prolific abortion program of the future, surpassing Planned Parenthood.

“Until our pro-life movement understands that Planned Parenthood may not be the future of abortion, we are going to fall behind in all of our countermeasures to stem the expansion of abortion,” Seibel stated, adding that the Ryan Residency program is a “fungus infecting this nation,” and that the Ryan training program “represents 7,000 more prescribers of abortion pills in the future.”

“How are we going to stop all these providers?” Seibel asked. “Potentially, they could affect every rural community throughout the nation, making access to abortion as easy as going to your local doctor’s office.”