You can’t get that here.

There’s one post-Dobbs conversation that sticks out to me. I had a patient, a university student, with acne and the commonly-prescribed medication at the time was Accutane. Accutane could cause severe birth deformities, so you had to make sure the patient was at very low risk of getting pregnant. There had to be two forms of birth control, and patients would register their responses online, and we’d follow up with them.

I was following up with this student-patient, and talking about forms of birth control. One of the accepted options was abstinence, which a lot of patients listed because it was an easy response and they needed their acne medication.

She said, well, if I ever did get pregnant, I would just not continue the pregnancy. I’d get an abortion.

I remember telling her, you can't actually do that here.

And she was stunned that this would not just be an option everywhere.

This story sticks out to me because I was the first person to tell this student who had just moved here for school that she couldn’t get an abortion if she wanted one. And because of the laws, I felt like I couldn’t elaborate and say she could go elsewhere–like Oregon. I just said that she can’t get that here.