Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, those states that subsequently passed stringent abortion bans have seen a notable decline in medical students seeking residencies.
Recent analysis from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) highlights the concerning trend: a 6.7% drop in OB-GYN residency applications in abortion-banning states compared to a 0.4% increase in those where abortion remains legal. This trend is not limited to OB-GYNs; internal medicine programs in these states have also experienced a substantial decrease in applicants.
Atul Grover, executive director of the AAMC’s Research and Action Institute, wrote, “It should be concerning for states with severe restrictions on reproductive rights that so many new physicians — across specialties — are choosing to apply to other states for training instead.”
This decline likely reflects medical students’ concerns about restrictive abortion laws impacting their training, resulting in inadequate education in reproductive health.
Additionally, the legal and ethical challenges of practicing medicine in states with new abortion laws can significantly impede a doctor’s ability to treat patients effectively. Without comprehensive training, physicians may not be prepared to treat complications like ectopic pregnancies and hemorrhaging, potentially posing a risk to themselves and their patients.
“We’re physicians,” said Kousalya Siva, an obstetrics and gynecology resident at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., in an interview with NPR. “We’re supposed to be giving the best evidence-based care to our patients, and we can’t do that if we haven’t been given abortion training.”
In its analysis, the AAMC said an ongoing decline in new doctors could eventually result in limited access to overall health care in those states with abortion bans.
Debra Stulberg, chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Chicago, voiced in an interview with NPR that she is worried that as medical students increasingly factor in state laws on abortion when choosing where to apply for residency programs, the shortage of physicians in rural and underserved areas will be exacerbated.
In the meantime, medical schools and residency programs in states with restrictive abortion laws must navigate these challenges.
In response, some institutions are exploring alternative ways to support and train students and residents, including providing out-of-state training opportunities. Organizations like the Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program in Abortion and Family Planning train OB-GYN residents in more than 100 programs at hospitals throughout the U.S. and Canada.
As the landscape for reproductive rights continues to change, the medical community is facing a heightened need to adapt to ensure that future generations of health care providers are well equipped to meet the needs of all patients, regardless of where they practice.
