Physicians say the Idaho law is already making it more difficult to administer health care without fear of jail time. Nearly a quarter of Idaho’s practicing obstetricians left the state between August 2022 — the month the abortion law went into effect — and November 2023.

St. Luke’s Health System chief physician executive Jim Souza of Idaho said a common situation when a woman must be airlifted occurs when doctors at his hospital encounter a pregnant woman with a ruptured membrane or whose water broke before 22 weeks gestation; the standard treatment is an abortion.

At this point, the fetus cannot survive for long, but it may still have a heartbeat, and the pregnant person’s health is endangered. Fifty-four such cases of this occurred at the hospital system last year.

“When the guessing game gets too uncomfortable, we transfer the patients out at a very high cost to another state where the doctors are allowed to practice medicine,” Souza said.

Losing physicians

Between 2019 and 2020, before the Dobbs decision overturning Roe, one-eighth of the state’s birthing hospitals closed their doors, according to analysis from March of Dimes.

And nearly 20 percent of women in the rural state do not have a birthing hospital within a 30-minute drive of their home. Two hospital obstetrics programs have closed down since Idaho’s law banning abortion took effect, West Bonner General Health in Sandpoint and Valor Health in Emmett.

The law may also be causing physicians to flee the state.

Nearly a quarter of Idaho’s practicing obstetricians left the state between August 2022 and November 2023, with 58 physicians leaving the state, according to data compiled by the Idaho Physician Well-Being Action Collaborative. Only two obstetricians moved to the state during that same time period.

Idaho has no OBGYN residency programs, so the state must rely on recruitment from out-of-state hospitals to bolster its workforce, and this is becoming increasingly difficult.

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