Post Dobbs, conservative states’ abortion restrictions are forcing OBGYN doctors to go elsewhere for required training

Alice Miranda Ollstein | Politico | September 17, 2024

X LinkedIn Facebook Reddit Bluesky Threads SMS Email

[M]any residents across the country … have gone out of state for training in abortion since Dobbs. Most of them are OBGYN residents who are required to have that experience but are unable to get it in their home states. A smaller group are those … who have opted to do so in addition to their required medical training. {This] is just one glimpse into the challenges these residents encounter as they try to cover as much as ground as possible on an expedited timeline out of state — and supports medical experts’ fears that shortcomings in post-Dobbs training alternatives could affect the skills of many doctors.

Follow the latest news and policy debates on sustainable agriculture, biomedicine, and other ‘disruptive’ innovations. Subscribe to our newsletter.

Before Roe the doctor could have done rotations at a local clinic to gain that experience. Now, … opportunities for such training in-state had all but vanished — as they had for medical students and residents in roughly a third of the country — raising fears that women having miscarriages and other obstetric emergencies in the future will encounter doctors ill-prepared to care for them.

…

Abortion training has long been mandatory for board-certified OBGYNs, though anyone with a religious or moral objection may opt out. While those requirements still stand, researchers estimate that about 44 percent of all U.S. OBGYN residents — more than 2,000 per year — have lost access to that training in the states where they’re practicing, forcing them to scramble to find out-of-state placements.