Key takeaways:
- Of abortion-providing clinicians in states that implemented a ban, 42% relocated vs. 9% in states without a ban.
- A study author told Healio that more research is needed to see how these trends affect patients.
In a recent survey of abortion-providing clinicians, 42% who practiced in a state that banned abortion after the Dobbs decision relocated their practice, most often to a state without a ban.
“This took place within a year of the Dobbs decision,” Dana Howard, PhD, an assistant professor in the division of bioethics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, told Healio. “More research is needed to explore what is driving these trends, but we are starting to see how legal restrictions on abortion are impacting the reproductive health workforce.”
Abortion-providing clinicians who practiced in a state that banned abortion were significantly more likely to relocate than those in a no-ban state. Image: Adobe Stock
The findings build on previous research showing abortion bans affect providers’ choice of practice location.
The current survey was disseminated from May to December 2023 to professional listservs for abortion-providing clinicians in the United States and via snowball sampling. The researchers targeted clinicians who provided abortion care the year before the Dobbs decision and/or at the time of the survey. They categorized abortion ban states as those that implemented a near-total ban or a 6-week gestational ban after Dobbs.
Their final analysis included 305 abortion-providing clinicians across 44 states and Washington D.C. Among them, 26% practiced in a state that implemented a ban after Dobbs.
Overall, 16% (n = 47) of respondents said they relocated their primary practice state. Those who practiced in a state that banned abortion were significantly more likely to relocate than those in a no-ban state (42% vs. 9%), according to the researchers.
Among clinicians who relocated from a ban state, 89% moved to a no-ban state.
“In a previous analysis of the same survey, our team found that most of our respondents (93%) are proving health care beyond abortion care,” Howard said. “When these clinicians are compelled to leave states that ban abortion, patients are left behind with less access to reproductive and maternal health care.”
The researchers found that 17 respondents stopped providing abortion care after Dobbs, 13 of whom were in ban states.
“The legal landscape regarding abortion is constantly changing, and it may take years to determine the broad impact that restrictive state laws are having on reproductive health care workforce,” Howard said. “This study of clinicians providing abortion gives us early insight into the larger future shifts. More research is needed in real time to determine how these laws are affecting clinicians and what hospitals, medical associations and policymakers can do to better support clinicians providing patient-centered health care, as well as the patients left behind when they leave.”
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For more information:
Dana Howard, PhD, can be reached at [email protected].
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