Idaho Physician Stories
Lawmakers: “We’re not doctors.”
Anytime you legislate medical care, you should probably be ready for what your contingency plan is going to be for how that legislation is going to change the medical landscape.
If you don’t believe in abortion, don’t have one.
I love helping families. My job is taking difficult situations—whether it’s diabetes, heart conditions, preterm labor—and improving outcomes.
Blackballed
I really felt like primary care was my calling. It was how I could help the most people. I also realized my interest was truly in working with an under-resourced and historically marginalized population.
You can’t get that here.
She said, well, if I ever did get pregnant, I would just not continue the pregnancy. I’d get an abortion.
Safety Considerations
I’ve had conversations with my spouse about safety, like, are you okay with me continuing to do this kind of work?
That’s prison time
We’re trained and we have the medical knowledge to practice OB.
What we do is so nuanced
There's no way to detail it all out so that it works in every scenario.
No, not even married
Coming back to Idaho was eye-opening. Access to abortion was lacking. But it wasn’t even specifically the lack of abortion that was noticeable—as a young woman I’d get these comments, questions
The “A” Word
Someone on the team asked, “Is this an abortion?” And suddenly everyone backed away. This was pre-Dobbs and everyone knew that this fetus was not going to live. It was always going to die. Yet no one wanted their name on the patient’s records.