Idaho Has Lost A Third Of Its Ob-Gyns Since Banning Abortion
And more women than ever are nearly bleeding to death from miscarriages in Texas.
After Roe v. Wade was overturned, the state of Idaho decided, like many other like-minded states, that they just loved babies so very much that they wanted to force people to give birth to them against their will. So they outlawed all abortions and even pushed to make it so that doctors couldn’t perform them in emergencies.
Unfortunately, there have been some rather predictable side-effects, starting with the fact that they now have significantly fewer doctors available to deliver those babies they love so much.
A recently released peer-reviewed study has confirmed that the state has lost a third of its ob-gyns. Between 2022 and 2004, 114 of the 268 obstetricians (43 percent) practicing in Idaho at the time of the Dobbs decision either stopped practicing or moved away to continue practicing not-there. Since then, about 20 new ob-gyns have started practicing in the state, bringing the total to a net loss of 35 percent. That’s not good, especially for those babies we’re told they care so much about. Sure, there are people out there who give birth at home in kiddie pools with nary a problem, but there can also be serious complications.
But wait, there’s more — according to the study, of “Idaho’s 44 counties, 151 of the state’s OB/GYN physicians practicing obstetrics (85%) are concentrated in the 7 most populated. In the remaining 37 counties, by the study’s conclusion, 23 OB/GYN practicing obstetricians served a population of 569,000 Idahoans.”
What could possibly go wrong?
But How Is The Abortion Ban In Texas Going?
A recent data analysis from ProPublica has determined that blood transfusions resulting from miscarriages have gone up 54 percent in the state since Dobbs overturned Roe v. Wade. Why? Well, it’s because doctors used to be able to prevent excessive bleeding by doing a D&C on someone experiencing a miscarriage, but now they’re too afraid of going to prison or being sued for lots of money to risk it. Isn’t that fun?
Last year, a woman died of a hemorrhage because a hospital in Houston refused to perform the procedure. I’m only surprised there haven’t been more.
The analysis also found that people seeking treatment for miscarriage in hospitals has shot up 25 percent, likely because they were initially turned away and it got worse.
Another report from ProPublica from earlier this year found that sepsis rates had increased by 50 percent, which is also quite fucking horrifying.
In Colorado, Some Good News And Some WTAF News
US District Judge S. Kato Crews upheld a 1993 Colorado state law requiring that anti-abortion rights protesters keep 100 feet away from clinics, in order to protect the safety of those going inside for treatment.
The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by Wendy Faustin on the grounds that the law — referred to as a “bubble” law — violates her First Amendment right to free speech, claiming that the law requires her to “raise her voice at patients from outside the zone—a mode of communication sharply at odds with the compassionate message she wishes to convey.”
Because what’s more compassionate than harassing someone trying to go to a doctor’s appointment?
Of course, while people do have a right to free speech, they do not have the right to get into anyone’s face and they do not have the right to a captive audience.
So that’s good! What’s not good, however, is that US District Judge Daniel D. Domenico found that the state will not be allowed to bar a Catholic health clinic in Englewood from claiming that they can reverse medical abortions by giving patients a high dose of progesterone after their initial dose of mifepristone, a claim for which they have no proof. There have been no clinical trials of this technique and any “success” anyone has had with it is undermined by the fact that taking mifepristone on its own is less foolproof than taking it with misoprostol. For all anyone knows, it could be precisely as effective as putting on some tap shoes and Shuffling off to Buffalo right after taking the first dose of abortion medication, but they’re allowed to pretend it works now, for reasons.
Weirdly enough, however, the state will still be allowed to enforce the ban against other clinics and hospitals in the state, just not that particular one.
And What About Oklahoma?
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed an executive order last week barring physicians who are in any way connected with abortion care — by referring patients, being employed by Planned Parenthood or similar entities, or owning a “My Body, My Choice” bumper sticker (probably) — from taking Medicaid funds for anything. You know, because there are just too many doctors out there who take Medicaid.
Those who wish to be able to keep getting Medicaid funds will have to sign an anti-abortion pledge promising to never, ever, ever have anything to do with abortions ever again as long as they live.
Meanwhile, 47 hospitals in Oklahoma, more than half of the hospitals in the state, are at risk of closing thanks to the Medicaid cuts in Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.
Speaking of Trump …
The Trump administration is now looking to ban all abortions, for all reasons, including rape and incest, at Veterans Affairs hospitals across the United States. Because fuck the veterans, that’s why!
The plan is to reverse a Biden-era policy meant to ensure some method of abortion access for our nation’s veterans and their families, allowing them to be counseled about abortion and to obtain abortions at VA hospitals in limited circumstances.
It reads:
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is proposing to reinstate the full exclusion on abortions and abortion counseling from the medical benefits package, which was removed in 2022. Before that time, this exclusion had been firmly in place since the medical benefits package was first established in 1999. VA is also proposing to reinstate the exclusions on abortion and abortion counseling for Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) that were removed in 2022. We take this action to ensure that VA provides only needed medical services to our nation's heroes and their families.
Because hey! What’s a little “being forced to have your rapist’s baby” on top of the regular, war-related post-traumatic stress syndrome, amirite?
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
For the record, Planned Parenthood clinics here in eastern Washington have been providing care for an historical number of Idaho women. Unable to access reproductive medical care in Idaho SO many women are seeking care here in Spokane.
Too many of them are afraid of being prosecuted or otherwise punished. That ENRAGES me beyond all measure.
Colleague's 17-year-old daughter has been considering colleges, and for some reason has had her sights on a few places that happen to all be in red states. I was relieved to learn that now she's totally keen on going to a school in a blue state.