ICYMI: Kemp’s Extreme Abortion Ban Risks Worsening Physician Shortage

Medical Students are Choosing to Attend Residency in States Without Abortion Bans

With Gov. Brian Kemp’s extreme abortion ban in effect, Georgia medical students are now rethinking practicing medicine in the Peach State due to the rectrictive new law, which risks worsening the state’s physician shortage. With Georgia already ranking a dismal 39th in the nation for physicians per capita and projections showing a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034, Kemp’s radical ban on abortion stands to exacerbate the shortage, threatening the state’s health care infrastructure and Georgians’ health.

Despite wanting to work as primary care physicians in underserved and rural communities across Georgia, the medical students fear facing criminal charges for providing medically-necessary care, because politicians like Kemp — with no medical training or expertise — have arbitrarily decided which care is legal under state law.

The issues raised by the medical students echoed problems raised by Georgia doctors during a panel discussion last week, where the physicians shared how Kemp’s abortion ban is detrimental to the training of new doctors, especially OB/GYNs, and worsens Georgia’s physician and nurse shortage.

Read more from Athens Banner-Herald: To Prevent a Physician Shortage, Legislators Need to Ease Up Abortion Regulations

• We are three female students attending Georgia’s only public medical school (whose views we do not represent). The three of us come from medically underserved areas in Georgia that house more Waffle Houses than hospitals.

• With a national shortage of physicians, federal and state governments bank on us one day returning home to staff medically underserved hospitals and clinics.

• However, recent legislation has made it increasingly difficult for students like us to justify returning to our home counties and states to practice medicine.

• The so-called “heartbeat” law is unclear when it comes to repercussions for Georgian physicians who provide abortions past the 6-week mark. This is a point most women do not know they are pregnant and, our embryology textbook tells us, the heart is still developing.

• And because the law provides “personhood” status to fetuses, it’s also unclear what would happen if we performed an abortion we deemed medically necessary, but courts or lawmakers decide later it wasn’t.

• Unlike medical residents or physicians licensed in certain states, we students haven’t begun our careers yet. We still have some latitude when choosing where to practice. Why would we elect to serve an underserved county in a state that may criminalize our medical care?

• The American Medical Student Association, the largest and oldest independent association of medical students in the United States released a statement condemning the decision by the Supreme Court and calling medical students to action.

• The organization Medical Students for Choice supports chapters on medical school campuses and residency programs in 28 countries. All four allopathic medical schools in Georgia – including ours – host a chapter.

• Top posts on r/medicalschool, the most popular medical student subreddit, express contemplations about future residency applications for locations within “trigger law” states. Student Doctor Network, another popular messaging board for students, is having similar discussions.

• Some medical students have already begun to make the choice we are contemplating now and are choosing to attend residency in states without anti-abortion laws. They aren’t wagering their medical careers on the whims of state lawmakers.

• Even though about 20% of our country’s population lives in rural areas, only 9% of physicians practice in those communities. Ethnic and racial minorities, especially those in rural areas, have an even higher barrier to healthcare.

• Georgia has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the nation, one that is even more abysmal for Black and Hispanic mothers. 

• The federal government has reported on the doctor dearth in rural areas for years now and projects a deficit of over 20,000 primary care physicians by 2025.

• We don’t want to be a part of the physician shortage problem. The three of us currently intend to pursue careers in primary care, but current legislation is making it increasingly harder to give up our own medical safety and continue making the altruistic choice.

• Amidst a pandemic, we slogged through the process of applying to medical school and chose to attend a public school whose mission is to serve Georgians. Soon, we will be doctors and will decide where we want to practice medicine. If Georgia and other states with large underserved populations aim to attract a diverse physician population, then they must create environments where physicians feel safe enough to practice.

• We ask them to address the fact that the very population they are seeking are the ones staunchly opposed to their state legislation.

More on Brian Kemp’s extreme abortion ban:

• Kemp bragged about signing the “toughest abortion bill in the country” in 2019, which bans abortion before most women even know they’re pregnant.

• Kemp’s law could allow prosecutors to file criminal charges against women who get abortions and even target women who miscarry. Doctors are even hesitant to treat miscarriages, worrying they could face criminal penalties.

• Kemp’s extreme ban would essentially limit the ability of women seeking an abortion to just 2 weeks, effectivley outlawing “most abortion in Georgia.”

• Doctors, legal experts, and reproductive care organizations have raised crucial questions around Kemp’s ban on abortion and highlighted the severe danger it poses to women and health care providers.

• Under Kemp’s agenda, victims of rape or incest could be forced to give birth. Kemp has repeatedly stated his staunch opposition to any exceptions for rape or incest in an abortion ban.

• Health care professionals are warning that the governor’s new restrictions will “pile on challenges” for patients and providers in an already “tough system” to navigate.

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