State abortion bans limit the number of physicians who will choose to practice in that state, hurting everyday people who need healthcare.
Advocates, medical students, faith leaders and physicians came together earlier this month in Bowling Greens, Ky., to mark the two-year anniversary of the Kentucky Court of Appeals decision that allowed one of the nation’s most draconian state abortion bans to take effect. The near-total ban in Kentucky has no exception for abortion care in cases of incest or rape.
With a mobile billboard truck reading “Kentucky’s Abortion Ban Is Driving Away Doctors” as a backdrop, the Bowling Greens press conference highlighted the devastating implications of Kentucky’s abortion ban—chief among them its power to drive doctors away.
In a recent interview with Ms., Lilly Deljoo, University of Louisville medical student, chapter president of Medical Students for Choice and speaker at the press conference said, “It’s a very common thought process” among her peers in medical school “that maybe we don’t want to stay in the state when we know we fear getting the proper training that we need to be able to take care of our patients in the future.”
This press conference was part of a larger campaign unveiled this summer on the two-year anniversary of the fall of Roe and sought to call attention to the devastating effects of Kentucky’s abortion ban.
Alongside the campaign’s launch in June, students at the University of Louisville conducted and released a survey of medical students in Kentucky, which found that the majority were unlikely to practice in the state due to its antiabortion policies.
This finding is not surprising: A similar study conducted by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found that nearly 60 percent of applicants said they were “unlikely to apply for a residency in a state with abortion restrictions.”
KY lawmakers have taken away our freedom to make personal health decisions. Their intrusive policy decisions actively put our health & our futures in danger.
— KY Reproductive Freedom Fund (@KY_RFF) July 26, 2024
It’s up to our generation to take our rights back.
Learn how we are fighting back: https://t.co/Od5n7GH7hy pic.twitter.com/sbSWQcolN4
States with abortion bans are already confronting these consequences. A 2023 study conducted by the Association of American Medical colleges found that “states with abortion bans saw a larger decline in medical school seniors applying for residency in 2023 compared with states without bans.”
More recently, over 300 medical professionals came together to oppose Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban. As Dr. Alecia Fields and Shriya Dodwani wrote in The Courier Journal, “Our collective voice underscores how these bans severely impact our ability to provide essential medical care to Kentuckians.”
The projected lack of medical students and professionals in the state, coupled with an inability for doctors to provide essential medical care, is an especially frightening prospect for Kentucky. Studies show that more than half of Kentucky’s 120 counties are without an OB-GYN. Kentucky’s maternal and infant mortality rates rank among the worst in the nation. The state’s severe abortion ban only exacerbates this disparity and further prevents women from receiving critical reproductive healthcare.
A central goal of the newly announced statewide campaign is to raise awareness around this issue by highlighting how Kentucky’s antiabortion laws have made it “a less desirable place for medical professionals.”
The campaign is spearheaded by the Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Fund (KYRFF), a philanthropic organization established in 2018 in response to growing attacks on Kentucky women’s reproductive rights.
KYRFF was founded by Ona Marshall and her husband, Dr. Ernest Marshall, an OB-GYN in Louisville, Ky. The Marshalls are the former co-owners of EMW Women’s Surgical Center, a Kentucky abortion clinic founded in 1981. Before the fall of Roe, EMW was the only independent abortion clinic in Kentucky for many years and the only clinic to provide abortions after 13.6 weeks. EMW stopped providing abortion care once Kentucky’s trigger ban went into effect.
The informational campaign consists of two mobile billboard trucks, to be visible in three Kentucky cities (Frankfort, Lexington and Bowling Green); five rural billboards; and a variety of digital ads that urge Kentucky residents to sign a pledge calling for an end to the state’s abortion ban.
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