The exodus of Idaho obstetricians continues: a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows Idaho has lost a little more than a third of its OBGYNs since the repeal of Roe V. Wade in 2022.
Before Idaho banned almost all abortions in August 2022, there were 268 OBGYNs in the state. Today, there are 174 obstetricians serving the state’s roughly one million women, 600,000 of whom are of reproductive age.
The 35% decline is in line with falling numbers captured last year.
In 2024, an analysis by the Idaho Physician Well-Being Action Collaborative and the Idaho Coalition for Safe Health Care showed a 22% decline of the OBGYN workforce within the first 15 months following the ban.
Lead researcher Dr. Edward McEachern says the number of doctors was stable for a decade leading up to the ban. A couple of obstetricians would retire each year and be replaced by incoming doctors.
But since the ban went into effect, 114 doctors have left, while only 20 have started practicing in Idaho.
“Something happened in the marketplace that left some OBGYN, some obstetricians, wondering if they could practice safely in the community,” McEachern said.
Under Idaho law, physicians can provide abortions only when the life of the mother is in danger, or in cases of rape or incest. Outside of those exceptions, doctors can lose their license, face felony charges and get up to five years in prison.
“Something has been taken away, and it's made people weary about certain things around care delivery, around access of care, about counseling, about the inability to provide care that the physician and the patient decide on,” McEachern said, adding rural communities, which already face doctor shortages, will be impacted the most.
“Obstetric backup that is needed for a midwife or for a family medicine is not going to be there,” he said. “When things get really complicated, you need a perinatal and neonatologist to do this work as well. One of the biggest concerns I have is that the system is getting more and more fragile. And it's not resilient in a way that it used to be.”
McEachern said the vast majority of the doctors who left were not providing elective abortions.
Many OBGYNs left to practice out-of-state, while others continued gynecology but stopped providing obstetrics services. Some retired but were not replaced by new physicians.
“We're in a world of hurt right now,” he said. “We've got to do something different than what we're doing.”
