The need for gynecological care is increasing as abortion laws drive doctors away

There is unprecedented demand for the medical specialties of obstetrics and gynecology as physicians and physicians in training avoid the profession in states with abortion bans and restrictions on reproductive rights.

a new report from AMN Healthcare, the nation’s largest healthcare staffing company, shows that demand for gynecological care is increasing, with the medical specialty being the second most in-demand research the company has conducted in the past year. Searches for obstetricians and gynecologists only yielded general practitioners, who are consistently the most sought-after doctor, AMN data show.

Demand from hospitals, clinics and other health care facilities for obstetricians is the highest it has ever been since AMN Healthcare began its annual review of physician and advanced practice physician recruitment more than 30 years ago. This year’s assessment is based on a sample of more than 2,100 searches for permanent and advanced practice physicians that AMN Healthcare’s Physician Solutions division had “ongoing or performed during the 12-month period from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024.” , the company said.

“Demand for OB/GYN care remains high, while supply may be hampered by the Dobbs vs. Jackson Supreme Court decision, which resulted in fewer medical school graduates opting for residency positions in obstetrics,” This is what AMN Healthcare says in the analysis of its report.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion after nearly half a century in its ruling in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This ruling overturned the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe vs. Wade, which allowed states to enact a near-total ban on abortion, as well as other restrictions on reproductive services used to treat women.

OB/GYNs, for fear of financial penalties and the threat of imprisonment in some cases, move to states where abortion services are legal and reproductive rights are not threatened. A report last month in the Washington Post The aforementioned care gaps are widening in Idaho as gynecologists ‘flee’ the state. Idaho iIt is one of 22 states that ban or restrict abortion earlier during pregnancies than what was legal before the fall of Roe v. Wade.

But the AMN report indicates that the need for obstetric gynecologists will not diminish anytime soon, which is already leading to a shortage of gynecological care in rural areas, but suddenly also to a shortage in larger cities, where teaching hospitals are struggling to recruit residents for to recruit their doctor. -in-training programs. Young people completing medical school are avoiding states, typically governed by Republicans, that ban abortion or restrict reproductive services.

Some of these Republican Party-led states have also passed legislation to ban in vitro fertilization, and prospective doctors say they don’t want to risk training at academic medical centers and community hospitals with educational programs if they can’t learn how to perform reproductive procedures to carry out.

According to AMN Healthcare, states with abortion bans saw a more than 10% decline in OB-GYN residency applicants by 2023, based on data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

The American Medical Association has raised alarms since the AAMC data from the 2022-2023 residency application cycle was released last summer, concerned that the impact is being felt not only in the OB-GYN discipline, but also in medicine in in general, as all applications for residencies are eliminated in specialties.

“The number of unique senior applicants to U.S. MD schools that provide medical residency programs in states with abortion bans decreased by 3%,” the AMA said in a report last year.

“The impact was most dramatically felt in obstetrics and gynecology, where programs saw a 5.2% decline in applications to U.S. MD-granting institutions overall, compared to a 1.8% decline in applications for all specialties.” the AMA said of the AAMC data. “In states where abortion is completely banned, the number of applicants to OB-GYN residency programs at US MD schools fell by more than 10% compared to the previous year. For states with pregnancy limits on abortion, requests fell 6.4%.”