Idaho's OBGYNs Are Jumping Ship
Among potatoes, waterfalls, and Demi Moore, Idaho is host to a number of icons. Less known it is, however, for hosting a record low number of physicians per capita. But thanks to the state’s anti-abortion legislation, it’s pretty much secured the dishonor for the foreseeable future.
According to a new JAMA paper, Idaho lost 94 of its 268 (or 35%) practicing OBGYNs between August 2022 and December 2024, due to the state’s near-total abortion ban. With doctors either leaving, closing practices, or retiring, institutions like the Idaho Medical Association are worried. “This study clearly shows how our legal environment is causing physicians to leave the state and making it more difficult to recruit new ones to take their place,” CEO Susie Keller announced in a press release. “Idaho is digging a physician workforce hole that will take years, if not decades, to fill.”
Owing to anti-abortion Governor Brad Little, Idaho has one of the country’s most draconian abortion bans. The state’s ban even made it to the Supreme Court in June 2024, after the Biden administration sued—claiming Idaho defied EMTALA guidance—in August 2022. But the court ultimately ruled… nothing, instead punting it back to a lower court. “So, to be clear: Today’s decision is not a victory for pregnant patients in Idaho,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in her concurrence at the time. “It is delay.”
Physicians are allowed to perform the procedure in cases of reported rape or incest, ectopic pregnancies, or to save the mother’s life—but the latter leaves them a blurry picture of what they can and can’t do. Moreover, performing an abortion for any other reason can land them jail time of up to five years–or cost them their medical license.
https://www.jezebel.com/idahos-obgyns-are-jumping-ship
I have the distinct feeling this is mirrored in every other red state.
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