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Although abortion care is not provided now, laws have been created to restrict the procedure Confusion and uncertainty What treatments for miscarriage are legal and don’t even recommend not getting pregnant Patients on the option of abortion, he said. In Texas, assisting abortions exposes doctors to civil and criminal charges.
“It definitely bothers me,” Bardhi said. “If a patient comes in, and you can’t give them the care they need to be safe, I probably shouldn’t be practicing here. The thought flashed through my mind.
He balances his fear with his sense that he can do more good by staying, which includes advising patients to take birth control.
Bardi’s uncertainty reflects a broader hesitancy among some doctors and medical students about career opportunities in red states, where abortion laws have changed rapidly since the Supreme Court’s ruling. Roe v. WadeThrough interviews with healthcare professionals and reproductive health advocates.
A large medical recruiting firm said it recently turned away 20 obstetricians and gynecologists from jobs in red states because of abortion laws. The refusal extends beyond those interested in providing abortion care, as laws intended to protect fetuses could open doctors up to new liabilities or limit their ability to practice.
It is not clear how many career decisions will be made in between Violence and confusion Since the decision of the Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization It translates into permanent geographic change. But in A National shortage Reproductive health experts say early data suggests red states are putting themselves at a disadvantage, at least in the race for critical front-line providers.
A large health care staff AMN Healthcare, clients in states with abortion bans are having trouble filling vacancies because some prospective OB/GYN candidates are not considering opportunities in states with new or pending abortion bans.
Tom Florence, president of AMN health care company Merritt Hawkins, cited 20 cases since the Supreme Court decision.
“That’s definitely a trend we’re seeing, to talk to about 20 candidates who say they’re not willing to practice in those restrictive states,” Florence said. “It will definitely affect things going forward.”
“All three were afraid they would be fined or lose their licenses for doing their job,” one of the firm’s recruiters said, after three candidates were working to fill a single job at a maternal-fetal medicine clinic in Texas.
In another example, a physician contacted by an AMN Healthcare employer trying to fill a position in an anti-abortion state “simply said ‘Roe Versus Wade’ and hung up,” Florence said.
Florence said the shift has particularly serious implications for small rural hospitals, which can afford only a small number of maternity specialists, or in some cases only one.
“They can deliver hundreds of babies and see thousands of patients every year,” he said. The absence of an OB/GYN in their community is significant if not for the Supreme Court decision. The burden is borne by the patients.
Tellingly, Florence added, she never met a doctor who wanted to practice in the state because none of the employers banned abortion.
2021 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation75 percent of OB/GYNs said their practices do not perform abortions for the purpose of terminating a pregnancy.
But widely-written abortion bans in the United States have chilled the broader practice of reproductive health, say mainstream medical leaders who support abortion rights. They say normal standards of care are being abrogated in states where there is no difference to a woman’s life and health.
They worry Restrictions on training They undermine the recruitment of young talents for new doctors. They are concerned about restrictions Fertility treatment. Conservative lawmakers are expected to want to impose restrictions on certain types Birth controlIncluding IUDs and Plan B drugs. Most Republicans in the US House He protested last month A measure that protects the right to contraception.
In addition, many OB/GYN doctors, while not performing abortions themselves, strongly believe in patient autonomy and decision-making, academic and clinical leaders said.
“Even doctors in restrictive states have never had to deal with this kind of political interference and legal oversight,” said Eve Espey, MD, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of New Mexico and a physician at UNM’s Center for Reproductive Health. . “It’s a tremendous intervention in a lot of reproductive health care.”
Third year OB/GN resident at UN. M., Alanna Carstens Yalom attended Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. She entertained the idea of returning to Louisiana for her medical practice. Not anymore. She wants abortion care to be part of her OB/GYN practice, and Louisiana has a ban.
“I don’t think that’s an option for me right now,” she said.
Physicians, medical residents and medical students said in interviews that they are concerned about the impact on the profession. How to navigate careers in the new landscape is a major topic of discussion among doctors and trainees, he said.
Mayrose Porter, an Austin native who is a student at Baylor Medical College in Houston, said she will apply for residency in her home state, but the only options on her list are states where abortion is legal. In the long run, Porter, a member of the medical student body for election, doesn’t expect to practice medicine in Texas.
“The idea that I and other future doctors won’t be here is sad for me personally and sad for the community,” she said, referring only to herself, not Baylor. “There’s a sense of guilt that I’m leaving the community I grew up in.”
In Nebraska, Methodist Health System in Omaha has only two specialists specializing in high-risk pregnancies, who perform dilation and ablation procedures to remove embryos. The hospital allows abortions only in cases where the health and life of the woman is at risk. A group of OB/GYNs from Nebraska, including Methodist Maternal Fetal Specialist Emily Patel, has formed a local political action committee to urge the Legislature to decriminalize abortion.
They are warning about the “downstream effects” of contraception on reproductive health.
A common example is for a woman whose water breaks around 18 or 19 weeks. The risks of continuing that pregnancy to the health of the woman and the fetus include developmental problems in the fetus and the risk of infection in the woman.
But under Nebraska’s proposed abortion ban, Patel said, it’s unclear whether even explaining termination options in such a situation would be legal.
“We’re in an emergency situation and that fetus has a heartbeat and the patient sitting in front of me isn’t sick. This is going to be a tough situation for a doctor,” Patel said. “A doctor doesn’t want to be in a position where they can be criminally charged for providing routine care and advice.”
It’s the kind of legal uncertainty and risk that top doctors want to avoid, she added.
Opponents of abortion say legal risks and restrictions on elective abortions are overblown.
“There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about what this means for reproductive health,” says the OB/GYN, medical director of CareNet Pregnancy Center of Maryland, which encourages women to continue pregnancy. “There should be no problem” in treating miscarriage with drugs or surgical intervention, she said.
“If they’re practicing medicine, they shouldn’t have to worry about their license,” said Christiansen, a member of the pro-life American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
She acknowledged some confusion: “Hopefully, the upcoming rules will clarify some of these things.
Another member of the anti-abortion physicians group, associate professor Susan Bann of Barton College, a small Christian-affiliated institution in North Carolina, says that reluctance to go to abortion states is determined by a small percentage of OB/GYNs. Doctors who want to perform elective abortions.
“If you’re in medical school and you want to be an obstetrician and you want to have an abortion, you pick a state where it’s legal,” she said.
Hospital systems in states with abortion restrictions, including Utah, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Ohio, did not respond to requests for comment or declined to respond to questions about how they are handling retention and recruiting challenges.
Intermountain Healthcare, a large health system based in Utah, lists 10 OB/GYN physician vacancies on its website, more than any other specialty. A spokeswoman at Intermountain, unwittingly, included a Post reporter in an email to its public relations team after asking a Post reporter about the challenges of filling those vacancies under Utah’s abortion law: “We have to politely decline to respond.” Stay away from this matter.”
Doctors say they are grappling with the fallout from broad-brush rules written by politicians without detailed medical knowledge. David Turok, an associate professor of OB/GYN at the University of Utah and a member of the Physicians for Reproductive Health Board, which supports abortion rights, said the area poses significant legal and professional risks for specialists.
“What we have are laws that don’t represent the practice of medicine, they’re not framed in ways that we draw or talk about as medical professionals, and that makes it confusing,” Turok said.
Authorities in some states are working to clarify how abortion bans are enforced. The Louisiana Department of Health released it on Monday. List of 25 fetal conditions It may prove a termination.
Legal uncertainty increases the burden on OB/GYNs. they They have to respond to delivering babies 24 hours a day, emergencies take an emotional toll, and professionals reach some heights. The rates of accident cases and associated insurance costs.
Federal government He said. The United States needs 9,000 more OB/GYNs and the shortage will reach 22,000 by 2050.
In Michigan, old, pre-Ro After the Supreme Court decision, abortion was revived. The looming ban has prompted Tim Johnson, a veteran of high-risk pregnancy care at Michigan Health, to consider leaving the state. Although he is 73 years old and does not provide elective abortions, he is still not ready to retire from treating patients. If Michigan’s abortion ban sticks, he said, he may move to Maryland to practice.
“I always sayRo copied) quickly becomes so, so disruptive, “we’re just beginning to understand how truly disruptive it is,” he said.
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