Physician-only and physician assistant statutes: a case of perceived but unfounded conflict

In the 1970s, after the US Supreme Court declared in Roe v Wade that a woman has a fundamental right to terminate a pregnancy, most states enacted laws decriminalizing abortion. Generally, these statutes legalized abortion when performed by a physician. (Only six states--AZ, KS, NH, OR, VT, WV--do not require explicitly that abortions be performed by physicians.) At around the same time, but for different reasons, most states adopted regulatory measures establishing and defining the profession of physician assistant (PA). These laws broadly define the scope of practice of PAs as the practice of medicine by trained and licensed professionals under the supervision of physicians. Inconsistencies between physician-only abortion laws and PA statutes have generated confusion in the medical community as to whether PAs, working under the supervision of physicians, can legally perform abortions. Using three case studies, this article examines the statutory dynamic against the backdrop of the severe and intensifying shortage of trained abortion providers in the United States. The authors conclude that the perceived conflict between physician-only and PA statutes should not preclude PAs from providing this vital service.