Effects of Abortion Bans on the Physician Workforce

To examine physicians' experiences providing early pregnancy care under abortion bans and perspectives on how these bans affect the reproductive health workforce.

From May 2024 to May 2026, we conducted semistructured interviews with obstetrician-gynecologists, family medicine physicians, and emergency medicine physicians practicing in states with total or near-total abortion bans. Participants were recruited with purposive and snowball sampling. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed with an inductive thematic approach.

Fifty-five physicians from 14 states participated, including 25 obstetrician-gynecologists, 21 emergency medicine physicians, and 9 family medicine physicians. Abortion bans introduced uncertainty that reshaped the boundaries of clinical decision making and narrowed the services physicians felt able to provide, leading to increased referral to specialists for care previously managed by nonspecialists. Participants described tensions between professional obligations and personal well-being, as well as disruptions to core professional values, including commitments to patient autonomy, beneficence, and nonmaleficence. Perceived effects on the training pipeline included loss of expertise, barriers to physician and trainee recruitment, and diminished preparedness for independent practice among trainees in abortion-ban states. Professional burnout emerged as both a consequence of these changes and a factor shaping professional decision making.

Physicians across multiple specialties involved in early pregnancy care reported that abortion bans affected scope of practice, physician training, recruitment and retention, and workforce participation. These findings suggest that abortion bans may affect not only abortion provision but also the broader reproductive health care workforce and access to early pregnancy care.