Dana wants to become an ob/gyn.
In September, Texas passed a law known as the Heartbeat Act that made abortions illegal six weeks after conception and gave state residents the ability to file lawsuits against abortion providers. The law made her realize that finding the right program was more than just a matter of personal preference.
One of the first thoughts I had when I heard about the Texas abortion ban was, "I guess I know where I won't be applying to residency."
There are millions of pregnant capable people without easy access to reproductive health care because of the new abortion reality. 13 states have banned or are about to ban abortion access because of the decision. Other people are expected to follow suit.
Abortion-related care is an essential part of the ob/gyn's practice. To be unable to provide that care, as is now the case in nearly half the U.S., can be a key factor in deciding against practicing in those states.
To become an ob/gyn, you need training in abortion-related care from an accredited program, which is set by the accreditation council for graduate medical education.
In order to ensure that physicians in training have the experience necessary to care for all of their patients, access to experience with abortion must be included in the curriculum. People with moral and religious objections are allowed to not participate in the training.
A recent study shows that almost half of certified ob/gyns are training at medical residency programs in states that have either banned or are expected to ban abortions.
Those residents and future residents will need to finish their training out of state if they want to apply to residency programs and practice in those states. They won't apply to those programs on their own.
According to a study by the Association of American Medical Colleges, medical students establish careers about half of the time. The majority of residents still practice medicine in their home state after completing their training.
Dr. Lisa Harris is a professor of reproductive health at the University of Michigan.
In Michigan, abortion is banned except in cases where the life of the mother is in danger. Abortions are legal in the state if the ban is unenforced.
In November, Michigan residents will be asked if they want the state to remain an abortion haven.
She wants to work in Michigan. She thinks that an abortion ban would make her stop practicing.
When Texas enacted its abortion law last year, third-year med student and prospective ob/gyn at Oakland University, Flora Martz, realized her options for residency programs were narrowing.
Her boyfriend was offered a job in Texas. She said he turned down the offer after the two had talked about it further. She says she won't apply to any programs in Texas when she's ready to live there. I went to too much school to not get what I wanted.
Those who are just starting out in a field that has always been politicized are sympathized with by more established ob/gyns. Beverly Gray said she didn't think she would need a mini law degree to do her job.
She says her hospital has already seen a surge of patients from states that have more restrictions on abortion access.
Gray says it is easy to imagine the impact of the overturn of the abortion law on career decisions and would-be ob/gyns. She says that some people just want to work and practice medicine and not have to worry about being prosecuted or harassed because of their work.
Dr. Bartz is an ob/gyn at the hospital. She expects medical students, residents, and even young faculty to make career decisions based on the decision to overturn abortion. She says that many prospective ob/gyns won't want to work under limits on their training
Bartz says it is difficult to tell a professional to come into work and do their job. We have a brain drain where smart, compassionate individuals are going to recognize the limits of what they can do in their state.
Prospective ob/gyns are making decisions about their future based on the legal environment.
Emily, an ob/gyn who requested anonymity due to safety concerns, moved to Texas because she wanted to bring her expertise to a region where she felt it was necessary. She could perform procedures that other ob/gyns in her area couldn't because she had abortion specific training.
Emily says that even though they weren't doing abortions, they used to evacuate the uterus in a fetal demise if a patient came in with a bleeding fetus.
Without practitioners trained in abortion-related care present, those patients would have had to have cesarian sections, a major abdominal surgery.
Emily left Texas after the Heartbeat Act was passed there.
She says that she needs to not end up in jail and that she needs to not end up being sued for providing medical care.
Many patients who want to have an abortion end up giving birth in states where the procedure is not allowed. In a paper published earlier this month in the New England Journal of Medicine, the University of Michigan's Dr. Harris states that an estimated 18% to 57% of women want to end a pregnancies in counties where travel distances is possible.
The increase in births will trickle down to the ob/gyn workforce.
Harris said that requiring labor and delivery units to work over capacity will affect all birthing people, not just those who would have ended their pregnancies.
The residents within those states are going to suffer, and not only is there going to be a lack of abortion services within those states, there's going to be a real lack of all reproductive health services It will be bad for patients in these states.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
