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Monday, June 19th, 2023

‘We weren’t meant to be criminals’: the gynecologists training out of state post-Roe

Author:     Melanie Sevcenko
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)
Publication Date:     Sun 18 Jun 2023 | 08.00 EDT
 Link: ‘We weren’t meant to be criminals’: the gynecologists training out of state post-Roe
Stephan:  

Almost every week now I am seeing medical research papers and articles in the general audience press about OB/GYNs and graduating medical students leaving Red states because of laws passed by the MAGAt Republicans to control women. I confess it surprises me that in the second decade of the 21st century one of America’s two parties is still trying to keep women in a second class position and to control their most intimate function as women, and that women in those states voted for this. The result for the women in those Red states, particularly in the rural areas that make up much of the Red states are going to find themselves in obstetrical and gynecological deserts. This article explains the thinking of the medical professionals. It amazing the Republicans didn’t anticipate this; it is so obvious.

Maria Rodriguez, the director of the OHSU Center for Reproductive Health Equity. 
Credit: Christine Torres Hicks / Courtesy OHSU Center

Rachel is a third-year OB-GYN resident at a medical institute in Texas and last year, when the Dobbs vote overturned Roe v Wade, her education was derailed. For her safety, she declined to offer her last name or where she studies. In June 2022, the state’s “trigger law” went into effect and abortions became illegal – first after six weeks, now full stop.

“I was horrified and angry,” said Rachel, when Roe was reversed.

Following the ban, clinics in Texas have stopped providing abortion care to patients, as well as training to medical residents like Rachel.

Yet as a part of a national program requirement, under the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), Rachel needs to have experience in abortion procedures to become an OB-GYN physician. In Texas, abortion training is now limited to miscarriage procedures, but not hands-on abortion care.

“I went into OB-GYN to help women understand the options they have surrounding their health,” continued Rachel. “I can’t think […]

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