WASHINGTON — Bans or strict restrictions on access to abortion enacted by Republican lawmakers have led to a decline in the number of medical students seeking to practice in those states, and a handful of Democratic U.S. senators said Tuesday that those laws would be reversed would have to be done.
During a news conference just steps from the U.S. Capitol, lawmakers and reproductive rights advocates cited one study published in early May by the Research and Action Institute of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
The study “found that fewer new U.S. medical school graduates applied to residency programs in states that had banned or restricted access to abortion than to residency programs in states where abortion remained legal.”
In Alabama, for example, the study found that the number of applicants to gynecology residency programs in the state fell 21.2% in 2023-2024, according to the Alabama Reflector reported.
Residency training begins after completing medical school and can last between three and seven years, depending on the specialty in which the doctor is being trained. accordingly AAMC.
The AAMC Institute’s website says it “takes a novel and nonpartisan approach to policy challenges, redefines complex problems and offers workable solutions to improve U.S. health care among policymakers and the public.”
Washington state Democratic Sen. Patty Murray said the downward trend could worsen the doctor shortage in those states as gynecologists are also leaving those states.
“It shouldn’t surprise anyone because after all, why would you go somewhere where politicians and judges can override your medical degree and force you to put your patients in danger?,” Murray said. “Why practice in a state that threatens you with loss of your license, hefty fines and even prison time if you dare to help the patient get the abortion care they need?”
She said Congress must work to restore nationwide abortion protections that existed for nearly 50 years until the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade case less than two years ago.
Wisconsin could lose critical care, Baldwin warns
Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin said during the press conference that fewer and fewer doctors are choosing their home state to start their careers.
“Universities in states with abortion bans have been forced to send students to other states to receive advanced training in reproductive care,” Baldwin said. “I have heard of doctors commuting across state lines because they can no longer provide comprehensive care in their own communities.”
The decision by some medical students to apply for residency programs in states that protect abortion access could result in states like Wisconsin “losing critical care for half of our population,” Baldwin said.
“Fewer gynecologists means fewer doctors delivering babies and performing prenatal and postnatal checks to ensure mothers and babies get the healthy start they deserve,” Baldwin said.
“This means fewer physicians are providing routine productive reproductive care, such as performing mammograms and providing women with safe and reliable contraception,” Baldwin said. “This means more women in reproductive care are unable to find treatment in an emergency.”
Baldwin said it “makes sense” for medical assistants to want to learn and practice in states where abortion access is protected.
“If you were a medical student or a doctor, would you rather work in a state that limits the science-based care you can provide or a state that has removed politicians from the doctor’s office?” Baldwin said.
Arizona “whiplash between two abortion bans”
Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly said doctors and patients in his state are “living with uncertainty and chaos as our state teeters between two abortion bans.”
“I have spoken to several physicians who are thinking about leaving the state and many who have already left,” Kelly said. “I was on Zoom calls and saw the cardboard boxes piling up in the back. And that is because they cannot practice under the current circumstances.”
The number of physicians applying to residency programs in Arizona has “declined nearly 20% from 2023 to 2024. And gynecologists have seen applications decline by more than 25%,” Kelly said.
The only way to reverse the situation, Kelly said, “is to codify the right to abortion into law once and for all.”
Dr. Raegan McDonald Mosley, CEO of Power to Decide and a practicing physician in Maryland, said that over the past two years she has treated “patients who have traveled hundreds and even thousands of miles to be treated by me.”
Restrictions or bans on access to abortion have led to longer waiting times in states with protected access, creating complicated situations for doctors and patients.
The AAMC Institute study “shows that U.S. medical school graduates are less likely to apply for residency in states with abortion bans and restrictions,” Mosley said.
“These consequences will only exacerbate health disparities across the country,” Mosley said. “As health care providers, we trust our patients to know what they need. We also know that abortion is a health care option. And yet too many of us are prevented from providing that care, and too many people suffer because of it.”
Abortion pills are shipped to patients in states with bans
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said he “heard just last week of a young doctor who left his home state of Oklahoma to come to New York to begin his residency as a gynecologist at our state university system.”
New York, he said, has passed so-called “shield laws” that protect doctors within state lines from “prescribing and sending abortion pills to patients in states that have banned abortions.”
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide in the coming weeks whether access to medication abortion, a two-drug regimen approved for up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, will remain unchanged or revert to the prescribing guidelines in place before the changes began in 2016.
The case could bring significant changes to when and how doctors can prescribe mifepristone and misoprostol for abortions and miscarriage treatment. The judge heard oral presentations in the case in March.
A majority of the nine justices deciding to roll back the prescribing guidelines to what they were eight years ago would mean that doctors would no longer be able to prescribe the two drugs via telemedicine and patients would no longer be able to receive them by mail.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Schumer said restricting abortion access was “cruel” and had resulted in “chaos for patients and doctors.”
