Posted on 02/28/2024 12:26:59 PM PST by nickcarraway
Idaho has been losing practicing obstetricians since its abortion ban took effect in August 2022, according to a new reportopens in a new tab or window by the Idaho Physician Well-Being Action Collaborative (IPWAC).
The report showed that 22% of the practicing obstetricians in Idaho stopped practicing or left the state during a 15-month period from August 2022 to November 2023. In total, the number of obstetricians practicing in the state -- with a population of approximately 960,000 women -- dropped from 268 to 210 during that period.
The report also noted that two hospital obstetric programs closed during this period, while two other programs are struggling to remain open due to problems recruiting obstetricians, including one that is expected to close on April 1.
Melissa Simon, MD, MPH, an ob/gyn at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, told MedPage Today that the findings in this report are not unexpected given the environment created by the state's abortion ban.
"It's not surprising that providers are specifically wanting to move out of the state that is creating laws that are incongruent with sound, evidence-based medical care," she said.
Policymakers should fully consider the perspective of physicians when drafting laws that affect medical practice, said Simon, adding that doctors across all specialties are trained and tested to provide a level of care that is approved through board certification. It is simply not good medical practice when laws are passed that contradict or impede a physician's medical training and certification, she said.
"Why should we continue to practice in a state where we could go to jail for doing the right thing?" she said.
On the patient side, Simon noted that this trend will especially affect pregnant patients who are experiencing complications or facing complex labor and deliveries.
"Many of us are trained in the care of high-risk pregnancies," she explained. "So when you lose obstetricians, you lose the ability to care for people who ... have high-risk pregnancies [and] you lose the ability to have access to emergency obstetric care, including an emergency cesarean section."
And when patients do have access to that level of care, she added, they likely have to travel 50 to 100 miles just to get to a birthing center or hospital with a labor and delivery unit.
"That is a huge issue, especially given that more and more women who are pregnant are having other complications," she said.
Idaho's abortion ban went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturnedopens in a new tab or window Roe v. Wade due to two trigger laws the state passed in 2020 and 2021opens in a new tab or window. These laws made it a felony for any person to provide an abortion without exceptions. In July 2023, the Idaho legislature replaced those laws with another ban that made some exceptions for abortion, including when the fetus is dead, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Similar bans have been enacted in more than a dozen statesopens in a new tab or window since the Supreme Court's 2022 decision.
A similar reportopens in a new tab or window from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) showed that fewer medical students, especially those interested in obstetrics, were choosing residency programs in states with abortion bans. The report concluded that this trend would lead to a provider shortage in those states.
The IPWAC report highlighted where the remaining obstetricians are still practicing in Idaho, noting that 85% of obstetricians are practicing in the state's seven most populous counties, where the total number of providers declined by nearly 50 after the abortion ban. In addition to the loss of providers in those areas, the report showed that only 22 of the 44 counties in Idaho have access to any practicing obstetrician. Notably, nearly all of those counties lost an obstetrician during the observed 15-month period.
Simon emphasized that Idaho is likely not an exception when it comes to obstetricians leaving states with abortion bans.
"It's not the only state. It just happens to be the state where there are data," she said. "If we did the studies, we probably would see similar patterns in other states as well."
Michael DePeau-Wilson is a reporter on MedPage Today’s enterprise & investigative team. He covers psychiatry, long covid, and infectious diseases, among other relevant U.S. clinical news. Follow
That is why states like New York passes laws that required obstetricians to learn and perform them in medical schools.
I bet this so-called “exodus” slows to a trickle sooner rather than later. Plus, some obstetricians will be glad of the law.
This article reeks of false BS.
If anything, more OB doctors are needed due to less abortions and more births.
Author has a hyphenated cuck name. Probably BS.
Good riddance to these schizophrenic so-called obstetricians! Idaho and other pro-life states will attract obstetricians and doctors in general who protect human life in the womb.
That’s OK, Idaho is being flooded with people escaping Washington, Oregon, Califloodia, Caliburnia, Calitaxia, Calicrimea, Caliquakie-ah, Calimexico, Chinafornia, you name it.
Trust but verify.
In my neck of the woods I don’t know of any OBs with health systems who will perform elective abortions.
And I’ll bet most of the OBs employed in Idaho are employed by health systems.
So it’s likely that are still plenty if OBs around who see patients.
And this article is utterly BS.
Bet this has something to do with it, too...
https://healthandwelfare.idaho.gov/providers/idaho-medicaid-providers/information-medicaid-providers
so 22% decrease the murder of children, got it.
Which might indicate the major source of income for these obstetricians - and it wasn’t the medical care of women - just offing the results of some boinking a few weeks before.
Any doctor that believes it is better their patient be killed than to treat them can get out of town.
Then these physicians were not “obstetricians” in the first place. They were abortion providers. Obstetricians provide pre-natal care to pregnant mothers and their children.
Obstetricians should be caring for the life of the mother and child—not wanting to murder them.
Good riddance to those who had planned to make money off murder.
>That’s OK, Idaho is being flooded with people escaping Washington, Oregon, Califloodia, Caliburnia, Calitaxia, Calicrimea, Caliquakie-ah, Calimexico, Chinafornia, you name it.
Yeah and half of them stopped in NV during their exodus.
“Obstetricians” are NOT abortionists, and visa versa.
One is a doctor and the other is a butcher.
Good riddance to the butchers leaving the state.
Well . . . bye.
the ban should have brought them more business, of more women carrying full term. they don’t want more business?
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