Idaho's OB and MFM Flight Status

BOISE – Nearly a quarter of Idaho’s obstetricians have left the state in the 15 months since Roe v. Wade
was overturned and Idaho’s trigger abortion ban went into effect. Data compiled by the Idaho Physician
Well-Being Action Collaborative shows staggering statistics that should concern every person living in or
considering a move to Idaho. [Read the report]

Analyzing public data, the Collaborative identified roughly 40 to 60 obstetricians who stopped practicing
in Idaho since the abortion trigger ban was enacted in August 2022. In those same 15 months, only two
obstetricians moved into the state to practice. Even more concerning is that in this same period, hospital
labor and delivery programs shut down in two rural Idaho communities where access to healthcare was
already a significant challenge.

Not only does the exit of these specialists make care more difficult for pregnant Idahoans, it also further
strains a healthcare system already operating at its limit. Idaho ranks 50th (out of 51, including Puerto
Rico) in the nation for number of doctors per capita. The national average of live births per obstetrician is
94. Idaho has 107 live births per obstetrician each year.

These findings should concern every Idahoan. “In a time when we should be building our physician
workforce to meet the needs of a growing Idaho population and address increasing risks of pregnancy
and childbirth, Idaho laws that criminalize the private decisions between doctor and patient have
plunged our state into a care crisis that unchecked will affect generations of Idaho families to come,"
says Dr. Caitlin Gustafson, board president of the Idaho Coalition for Safe Healthcare Foundation. In a
state that cherishes family values, this loss of OB/GYN providers will make care harder for every family
and every person in our state. Our healthcare system is already fragile. Making it harder for physicians to
practice widely accepted standard-of-care medicine will cause others to leave as well.

The impact of the abortion bans and the criminalization of doctors reaches far beyond women facing an
unintended pregnancy. Just this week we learned crucial medication to treat women experiencing a
miscarriage is being denied. Access to physicians for pregnant Idahoans needing routine gynecological
care is limited. Families needing gynecological or obstetric care are being forced to decide if they can safely stay in Idaho. Companies considering bringing business to the state must determine if employees and their families will be able to receive an acceptable standard of medical care here.

Idaho legislators may have not foreseen this devastating impact on the medical field. We urge them not
to ignore the facts now available to them. We urge them to read the Collaborative’s findings, carefully
consider their duty to protect the most basic and critical needs of every Idahoan, and take immediate
action to correct course before it is too late.

The Idaho Coalition for Safe Healthcare works to ensure Idahoans have safe, legal, and equitable access
to evidence-based medical care, that physicians and healthcare professionals are able to provide
accepted standards of care, and that healthcare decisions made within a patient-provider relationship are
honored and preserved. For more information, please visit www.idahocsh.org.