Latest Analysis Heavily Cited By Policymakers
The AAMC Research and Action Institute’s data snapshot, States With Abortion Bans See Continued Decrease in U.S. MD Senior Residency Applicants, has been cited by several senators during a Capitol Hill press conference on the implications of abortion restrictions on the nation's health care workforce.
The snapshot, published in May of 2024, provides an updated analysis of the 2023 publication, Training Location Preferences of U.S. Medical School Graduates Post Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, and finds continued reductions in applicants to residency programs located in states with abortion bans two years after the U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs decision, which overturned the constitutional right to an abortion.
U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) led the conference on May 21, 2024, alongside Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), as well as health care providers Dr. Raegan McDonald Mosley, CEO of Power to Decide, and a practicing physician in Maryland.
Murray directly cited the snapshot and the AAMC Research and Action Institute in her opening remarks, stating the downward trend in residency applicants is directly related to state restrictions on reproductive health care.
“We are understandably seeing more and more health care providers leave states with bans, and fewer and fewer medical residents heading to those states to practice.”
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly echoed these sentiments, as fewer medical residents, and particularly OB-GYNs, have detrimental consequences in their home states that can exacerbate physician shortages and limit patient access to care.
“Residency applications in Arizona decreased by nearly 20% from 2023 to 2024, and for OB-GYNs, applications dropped by more than 25%.”
Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ)
The decrease in residency applications to states with abortion bans was also discussed at the Senate HELP committee’s hearing on abortion.
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