Gee, Wonder Why This Idaho Hospital Had To Quit Delivering Babies!

It is a mystery!

Sometimes it's just really easy to know how something is going to go.

Like how, if you are watching a Lifetime movie and a new person comes into the main character's life, whether as a nanny or a surrogate or a secretary or a new gal on the cheer squad, or the identical twin who was separated from them at birth, that person is going to try to take over the main character's life, steal her baby and her boyfriend/husband and in the course of doing so will murder her quirky best friend who senses something is amiss and probably at least one other rando who gets in her way, get in a big confrontation with the main character at the end and then either die or end up in a mental institution.

You know, like that?

Anyway, when states started banning abortion, anyone with a lick of sense immediately thought of the fact that there is a major doctor shortage all over the country — an ob-gyn shortage in particular — and this would probably make that a lot worse in these states (where things were already bad to begin with). And guess what? That's exactly what's happening .

An Idaho hospital is closing its labor and delivery unit, citing the fact that all of their doctors are leaving and they cannot get more because no ob-gyns want to move to Idaho, which has one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the nation.

Via CBS:  

An Idaho hospital will stop labor and delivery services, citing doctor shortages and the "political climate," the hospital announced Friday.

"Highly respected, talented physicians are leaving. Recruiting replacements will be extraordinarily difficult," Bonner General Health, located in the city of Sandpoint, said in a news release.

Pregnant women who utilized Bonner General, a 25-bed hospital, will now have to drive to hospitals or birthing centers in Coeur d'Alene or Spokane to give birth.

In 2022, doctors delivered 265 babies at Bonner General and admitted less than 10 pediatric patients, the hospital said.

That's ... not very good. But it's reasonable. Idaho is one of six states where doctors can be prosecuted for performing an abortion, and we can't exactly blame doctors for not wanting to be in a situation where they have to decide between treating a patient and breaking the law and ending up in prison.

Now, I am not wide-eyed and innocent enough to think that hospitals closing over stupid abortion laws is going to lead to any of these states changing their abortion laws. I mean, we live in a country where we've all pretty much decided that we are okay with it costing an absolute fortune to be pregnant and give birth, which is just not really heard of anywhere else in the known universe in the year 2023. These people aren't really going to care if there is nowhere to give birth. There are already not a lot of places to give birth, or even just go to the doctor in rural areas, and all they care about are other people's children god forbid going to eat some waffles and watch a man in a sequin gown lip sync to Kylie Minogue.

"What about all of those ladies who gave birth in stuck elevators and taxis on television sitcoms, huh? They seemed fine! Zack Morris delivered Mrs. Belding's baby, in an elevator, as a high school senior. What do we even need doctors for?" is what they would say, I imagine, if they said anything at all.

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