By Kyle Pfannenstiel
Idaho Capital Sun

Idaho lost more than a third of its practicing obstetrician doctors after the state’s near-total abortion ban took effect, a new study published in a peer-reviewed academic journal confirms.

The study — published July 31 in the JAMA Network Open, a division of the Journal of the American Medical Association — found that Idaho lost 35% of its doctors who practiced in obstetrics. In total, Idaho lost 94 of those doctors out of 268 between August 2022 and December 2024, the study found.

Idaho’s abortion ban took effect in 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned national abortion protections. Some OB-GYNs, including maternal-fetal medicine specialists, said publicly that they were leaving because of the ban. 

“These results provide a stark picture of a rapidly declining maternal health workforce in our state,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Edward McEachern, said in a statement.

The study appears to confirm findings from a report in February 2024 by the Idaho Physician Well-Being Action Collaborative that found Idaho lost 22% of its practicing obstetricians since the state’s abortion bans took effect.

Despite calls for change in the three years Idaho’s ban has been in place, including by the state’s top medical association, Idaho lawmakers have largely refused to modify Idaho’s strict abortion laws. Organizers are collecting signatures to qualify a ballot initiative in November 2026 that could end Idaho’s strict abortion bans and establish reproductive freedom rights. 

“Since Idaho’s abortion ban went into effect, [the Idaho Medical Association] has raised the alarm about the unintended consequences of criminalizing medically necessary care for pregnant women,” Idaho Medical Association CEO Susie Keller said in a statement. “This study clearly shows how our legal environment is causing physicians to leave the state and making it more difficult to recruit new ones to take their place. Idaho is digging a physician workforce hole that will take years, if not decades, to fill.”

More than 40% of the obstetrics doctors Idaho lost since its abortion bans took effect moved out of state, the study found. More than a fifth retired, but some narrowed their medical practice focus to gynecology or stopped practicing in rural areas, the study found.

The study pulled information from publicly available professional credentialing sources, physician websites, national registries and confirmation from the doctors. 

The vast majority of Idaho’s remaining OB-GYN doctors are practicing in the state’s seven most populated counties, the study found. Just 23 OB-GYN doctors practice in Idaho’s other 37 counties that are home to nearly a quarter of the state’s population, compared to 151 in Idaho’s seven most populated counties, according to the study.

States Newsroom reporter Kelcie Moseley-Morris contributed.

This story was produced by Boise-based nonprofit news outlet the Idaho Capital Sun, which is part of the States Newsroom nationwide reporting project. For more information, visit idahocapitalsun.com.

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What others have had to say about Idaho’s doctor exodus

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

The Idaho Democratic Party issued a statement on the JAMA report on July 31, headlined: “Republican Abortion Ban has turned Idaho into a maternity care desert.”

“This report is horrifying, and it should be a wake-up call for every Idahoan,” wrote IDP Chair Lauren Necochea. “Over a third of practicing obstetricians are gone. Hospitals across the state have shut down their maternity wards. And pregnant women are being left with nowhere to turn. This is what the Republican abortion ban has done: driven doctors out under threat of imprisonment, closed maternity wards, and put lives at risk. Idaho Democrats refuse to look the other way. We trust women to make their most intimate medical decisions without politicians standing in their way. We’ll keep fighting until every Idahoan can get the care they need.”

However, in the 2024 Legislative District 1 candidates’ forum, former-Sen. Scott Herndon, R-Sagle, argued that physician shortages stem from demographic changes that are affecting a number of other industries. During his one term in the Statehouse, Herndon — who is a self-styled “abortion abolitionist” and also serves as chair of the Bonner County Republican Central Committee — was an architect of Idaho’s strict abortion ban, and unsuccessfully pushed for removing all exceptions, including in cases of rape and incest.

“I don’t believe that we should put to death children for the crimes of their father … I think our abortion ban is sound and I think my position is principled, based on the Constitution of the United States and scripture,” he said.

Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle, who unseated Herndon in the 2024 election and currently serves LD1, countered Herndon’s claims, stating at the forum: “The facts are doctors are leaving and our women are suffering because of the existing Idaho law. … We need to go back and revisit what we put in place.”

Two-term Dist. 1A Rep. Mark Sauter, R-Sandpoint, said in the 2024 forum that while “It’s a tough issue,” “I think we as the Legislature owe it to our health care professionals to give them some good guidance and put some curbs, so they can be comfortable in practicing.”

Sauter voted in favor of Idaho’s abortion law, but later came to question its effect on pushing doctors out of practice in the state. He and Woodward introduced legislation at the end of the 2025 Legislature to add an exception to the abortion ban to protect “the health of the mother,” but it was not taken up by the end of the session in March — rather, meant to “start a conversation” on the issue, to be taken up in the 2026 Legislature.

In an interview with the Reader in May, U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho, echoed Herndon’s skepticism that near-total abortion bans such as Idaho’s have spurred an exodus of OB-GYNS or other women’s health care practitioners, saying that he would “check into” the “claim that that’s the reason why those doctors left or whatever.”

“So far, when we’ve done that, there’s just more to it than that, and if that’s the case, then OK, that’s the case, but they at least have the option of going next door, because it’s legal there,” he said, later adding that laws related to abortion access should be with the states and that, “This state is overwhelmingly pro-life. And the Legislature likes that, and I’m there with them.” 

In response to a further question about the “unintended consequence” of Idaho’s abortion law prompting doctors to leave Idaho, Fulcher responded, “OK, I need to see the data. … Idaho is a destination for the medical community. Overall, doctors want to come here.”

In March 2023, Bonner General Health announced it would suspend its labor and delivery services effective in May of that year, making it among the first hospitals to do so in the wake of Idaho’s then-new abortion ban and making national and international headlines.

Citing the “legal and political climate” in the state, BGH officials stated in a March 17, 2023 news release:

“Highly respected, talented physicians are leaving. Recruiting replacements will be extraordinarily difficult. In addition, the Idaho Legislature continues to introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care. Consequences for Idaho physicians providing the standard of care may include civil litigation and criminal prosecution, leading to jail time or fines.”

Jen Jackson Quintano, founder and executive director of the Sandpoint-based nonprofit reproductive rights advocacy organization Pro-Voice Project, told the Reader that, “While these new numbers are alarming, they’re not surprising — especially here in Bonner County, where we felt the harmful aftershocks of Idaho’s abortion bans early and mightily. Ours was the first labor and delivery department in the state to shutter. Ours was the first community to see all of its OB-GYNs leave. We’ve been living this data; now we have confirmation that we’re not alone. This is small comfort in the midst of a rapidly building health care crisis — one that may take a generation or more to reverse.”

Quintano said that aside from the shock of the number of physicians who have chosen not to practice in Idaho in the wake of the state’s abortion ban, “as a rural resident, I’m even more alarmed by the fact that only 23 obstetricians now serve Idaho’s less-populated 37 counties, where a quarter of the state’s population resides. 

“Not only does this generate poorer health outcomes for patients, but it also leads to provider burnout, which exacerbates the problem of departures,” she added. “Our reproductive health care system is in a death spiral.”

PVP is collecting physician stories intended to “pair experiences and emotions with this data.” 

“Each of the 114 [physicians] who stopped practicing — and many of the 174 who remain — have tales of anxiety, anguish, tears and sleepless nights,” Quintano said. “None of these physicians are just a number. They carry big hearts and expansive hopes for their communities and patients. They saved lives — including mine. No amount of data can convey this full picture of loss. The numbers only hint at its depth.”