I’m a Texas-Born OB-GYN—But Abortion Bans Are Forcing Me Out

Vi Burgess is a resident physician in Colorado, in training to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology. The Texas resident went to medical school in the Lone Star State, but says she’d be terrified to return home to practice medicine.

7/26/2025
by Bonnie Fuller, Ms. Magazine

Ever since Texas became the first state in the country to pass the first abortion ban in 2021, doctors specializing in obstetrics and gynecology have been fleeing the state because they fear getting thrown in jail for up to 99 years if they provide an abortion that the state’s anti abortion attorney general doesn’t deem necessary to save a woman’s life. Texas used to be known as a state with top medical care. Now almost 30 percent of the state’s OB-GYN resident physicians plan to escape it in order to treat patients without a Big Brother state government watching over their shoulders.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/07/26/texas-ob-gyn-doctor-abortion-ban-law-heartbeat/

26.07.2025

Commentary

abortion provider training

Why Doctors Are Opting Out of Arkansas

The state’s abortion ban impedes recruitment and compounds physician workloads

By Caroline McCoy
April 18, 2025

Over ten days in February, Shannon Barringer, a certified genetic counselor practicing in Little Rock, referred three patients to medical facilities outside of Arkansas. Each woman had chosen to terminate a nonviable pregnancy, a medical procedure that would present far less risk than carrying the fetus but is no longer legal in Arkansas. Barringer had spent hours coordinating care for her patients elsewhere, ultimately sending two to Chicago and one to Boston. “I think part of me is running on automatic, trying to get these people where they need to be,” Barringer said. “But I also feel very emotionally worn out.”

Continued: https://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/why-doctors-are-opting-out-of-arkansas

19.04.2025

Commentary

abortion training

Arkansas abortion ban

Doctors Are Leaving Conservative States to Learn to Perform Abortions. We Followed One.

Abortion has been heavily restricted in many states post-Roe — and abortion training has all but disappeared, too. Inside one doctor’s journey to obtain that education at any cost.

By Alice Miranda Ollstein
Sep 6, 2024

WILMINGTON, Delaware — The doctor was about midway through her month of training, her head swimming with the new skills she was learning, when a heavy, tattooed patient in her 20s walked into the clinic to terminate an early pregnancy.

In the cramped exam room, closely supervised by the abortion provider who would perform the procedure itself, the doctor began running through the setup tasks she had observed and practiced over the previous weeks: injecting the painkiller lidocaine into multiple spots around the patient’s cervix and inserting a speculum into her vagina.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/09/06/doctor-abortion-training-journey-00170741

In France, abortion restrictions offset by medical autonomy

While U.S. grapples to recruit OB-GYNs in the aftermath of Dobbs, French restrictions spur less concern

By Ariel Cohen
Posted May 16, 2024

PARIS — In an airless classroom in Paris City University one Friday afternoon in March, a group of 17 female health care professionals — some doctors, some midwives — gathered to spend the weekend learning how to perform surgical abortions.

Sophie Gaudau is the no-nonsense leader of REVHO health network, which started providing abortion training for health professionals 20 years ago, back when abortion access in France was slightly more limited for patients and in terms of what the doctor could do. Today her organization receives support from the French Ministry of Health and Prevention.

Continued: https://rollcall.com/2024/05/16/in-france-abortion-restrictions-offset-by-medical-autonomy/

An American doctor couldn’t finish her abortion training after Roe v. Wade was overturned, so she went to Mexico City

Kate Hull
Jul 12, 2023

When Dr. Anita Vasudevan, a family physician, moved to California for her residency program in 2019, she never expected that she would do part of her medical training abroad in Mexico City.

But in 2022 she found herself in a Mexico City clinic for two weeks learning how to provide abortions.

Continued: https://www.insider.com/american-doctor-went-to-mexico-abortion-training-2023-7

12.07.2023

abortion training

Dr. Anita Vasudevan

Sutter Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency

TEACH program

Training in Early Abortion for Comprehensive Healthcare Program

One year after the fall of Roe v. Wade, abortion care has become a patchwork of confusing state laws that deepen existing inequalities

June 21, 2023
Heidi Fantasia

In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson ruling struck down the constitutional right to abortion, society has been seeing the results of a post-Roe world.

While there is no law in the U.S. that regulates what a man can do with his body, the reproductive health of women is now more regulated than it has been in 50 years. And the scope of reproductive health care that women can receive is highly dependent on where they live.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/one-year-after-the-fall-of-roe-v-wade-abortion-care-has-become-a-patchwork-of-confusing-state-laws-that-deepen-existing-inequalities-207390

21.06.2023

Commentary

abortion training

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

intimate partner violence

USA – ‘We weren’t meant to be criminals’: the gynecologists training out of state post-Roe

As abortion bans sweep the nation, OB-GYN residents rotate to abortion-supportive states to meet their program requirements

by Melanie Sevcenko
Sun 18 Jun 2023

Rachel is a third-year OB-GYN resident at a medical institute in Texas and last year, when the Dobbs vote overturned Roe v Wade, her education was derailed. For her safety, she declined to offer her last name or where she studies. In June 2022, the state’s “trigger law” went into effect and abortions became illegal – first after six weeks, now full stop.

“I was horrified and angry,” said Rachel, when Roe was reversed.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/18/obgyn-doctor-abortion-law-ban

To Get Abortion Training, Some Medical Students Must Leave Their States — and Come to California

Sydney Johnson
Jun 9, 2023

Kelly Mamelson has spent most of her life in Florida, including the last two years as a medical resident specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. But because of the state’s attempts to restrict abortion care, she’ll have to travel out of state to complete her training as an OB-GYN doctor. Like many in her position, she’s not planning to practice in Florida once she finishes — but hasn’t ruled out returning to her home state altogether.

“We feel we are abandoning our patients, but we feel we have no option other than to go out of state to get this training,” Mamelson said Friday at a panel discussion hosted by UCSF’s Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health.

Continued: https://www.kqed.org/news/11952673/to-get-abortion-training-some-medical-students-must-leave-their-states-and-come-to-california

The US Supreme Court abortion verdict is a tragedy. This is how research organizations can help

NATURE editorial
28 June 2022

In response to the demise of Roe v. Wade, universities and research organizations can support those affected, ensure education and research on abortion continue and advocate for evidence-based policy.

The consequences of the US Supreme Court’s 24 June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the court’s own landmark 1973 decision that enshrined the constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years, are already being felt. By striking down Roe, the court has put abortion rights in the hands of US state legislators. They have already responded.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01760-6

28.06.2022

American Medical Association

Association of American Medical Colleges

Many Residents Won’t Get Abortion Training if Roe Is Overturned

45% of OB-GYN Residency Programs Are in States Where Abortion is Likely to Be Banned

April 28, 2022
By Laura Kurtzman

Nearly half of obstetrics and gynecology residency programs in the U.S. may lack abortion training if Roe v. Wade is overturned in an upcoming Supreme Court decision, according to a new study by UC San Francisco and UCLA.

Researchers mapped OB-GYN residency programs across the U.S. and highlighted those in the 26 states that are expected to ban abortion if the Supreme Court overturns Roe in its ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which is expected by the end of June.

https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2022/04/422741/many-residents-wont-get-abortion-training-if-roe-overturned

28.04.2022