The Unintended Consequences of Idaho Laws

Idaho’s restrictions on reproductive health care have led to a number of unintended consequences that exacerbate our physician shortage, limit patient access to medically appropriate care, and compromise the health of Idaho’s citizens.

We know that within 15 months of Idaho’s trigger bans on abortion going into effect, 22% of the state’s OB/GYNs either retired or left the state, a trend that has deep repercussions. Many of those clinicians are married to health care professionals who also exit Idaho. In addition, recruiting new doctors to fill those vacancies is taking literal years.

As the 50th state in the nation when it comes to physician/population ratios, we can’t begin to be competitive with our current laws. We need a multi-pronged approach to reversing course, including changes to current laws, investments in Graduate Medical Education, loan forgiveness programs and more.

Please review the data in the Post-Roe Report and our 2023 Physician Retention Survey.