Medical Residents Are Increasingly Avoiding States With Abortion Restrictions - KFF Health News
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A new analysis shows that students graduating from U.S. medical schools were less likely to apply this year for residency positions in states with abortion bans and other significant abortion restrictions.

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According to new statistics from the Association of American Medical Colleges, for the second year in a row, students graduating from U.S. medical schools were less likely to apply this year for residency positions in states with abortion bans and other significant abortion restrictions.

Since the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, state fights over abortion access have created plenty of uncertainty for pregnant patients and their doctors. But that uncertainty has also bled into the world of medical education, forcing some new doctors to factor state abortion laws into their decisions about where to begin their careers.

Fourteen states, primarily in the Midwest and South, have banned nearly all abortions. The new analysis by the AAMC — a preliminary copy of which was exclusively reviewed by KFF Health News before its public release — found that the number of applicants to residency programs in states with near-total abortion bans declined by 4.2%, compared with a 0.6% drop in states where abortion remains legal.

Notably, the AAMC’s findings illuminate the broader problems abortion bans can create for a state’s medical community, particularly in an era of provider shortages: The organization tracked a larger decrease in interest in residencies in states with abortion restrictions not only among those in specialties most likely to treat pregnant patients, like OB-GYNs and emergency room doctors, but also among aspiring doctors in other specialties.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 months ago

    However you slice it, what these laws accomplish is to ratchet up liability for doctors and clinics treating pregnant women. The last thing I’d want is a pro-life doctor treating my mother, given her history of miscarriages. If Texas evangelicals had it their way, my mom would have bleed out on the operating table after her first failed pregnancy, rather than going on to have four more kids.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
      0·
      6 months ago

      Yes, they don’t give a shit about actually saving lives. They certainly do fuckall to protect a child after it is born. They want to control women.