Aspiring OBGYNs are concerned about adequate training post-Roe v. Wade

• Supreme Court Roe v. After Wade was overturned, several states banned abortion.
• The decision has many medical students interested in becoming OBGYNs concerned.
• Students said restrictions on abortion could limit their training and life-saving care.

Before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Lyle Suh was seriously considering becoming an obstetrician-gynecologist.

But now she’s not sure.

“It made me push harder for my own mental health,” Suh, who is in her third year of medical school, told Insider. “I really can’t see myself going into a field where it’s highly regulated. Like medicine, which has a lot of things that are out of our hands — that adds another chain to what we can do.”

Suh’s experience echoes that of other medical students who plan to specialize in reproductive care but find they are entering a field full of confusing bureaucratic catacombs and political landmines.

‘They have to go through all these obstacles’

Natalie Sorias, a third-year medical student at the University of Massachusetts, told INSIDER that she is passionate about women’s reproductive health, and will continue to strive to work in the field despite the challenges ahead.

“I went into medical school trying to be as open-minded as possible,” Sorias told Insider, “but the people I’m most interested in are women.”

Sorias, who studies female genital mutilation in Cairo, notes that “the most negligently deprived are women” and that “it inevitably affects children.”

As a first-generation Egyptian-American, Sorias Roe v. She said she was disappointed, heartbroken and angry about her decision to flip Wade.

“Being an immigrant — people come to America because they’re proud of its progress and its amazing health care and all of those things,” she said. “I was really hoping that being in this country would mean being part of a global example of reproductive justice. It’s a shame that we’re not and that’s a shame for people.”

She is concerned about the parallels with a residency program in a state that does not offer comprehensive reproductive health education, including abortion at various stages, and how competing programs in states where abortion is legal can be.

After medical school, students continue training in a residency program, where they become resident physicians. About 44% of obstetrics and gynecology residents — or 2,638 out of 6,007 — are training in programs in states that “do not have access to abortion training in the state” because of the state ban, according to an April report by the “Obstetrics and Gynecology” A study published in the journal Medicine.

“It’s not just difficult,” Sorias said. “It also greatly increases the competition for anyone trying to get in [Obstetrics]Gatekeeping is a profession that requires many providers to begin with.

Ishani Dixit, a medical student at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, echoed Syria’s concerns.

“It’s definitely more and more difficult in terms of not just my desire to be an abortion provider, but the practice of obstetrics and gynecology and making sure that we’re providing quality care to our patients,” Dixit told Insider.

She said she feared she was in a situation where legal abortions are only allowed in medical emergencies.

“But I worry about being in those kinds of situations and not being exposed enough to care for the patients I’m serving,” she said.

Morgan Levy is a third-year medical student at the University of Miami in Florida, where abortions are prohibited after 15 weeks, for example, to save the life of a pregnant patient.

Levy, for her part, said she has to consider an out-of-state residency because she worries that she has “a big part of the training in the field,” and “I can’t get it just because the procedure isn’t legal for a patient.”

“I think that’s a reality that a lot of students face,” Levy said. “They have to go through all these obstacles and find a place where they can get the training they need.”

‘We do what is best for the patient’

“Obstetrics and Gynecology” research programs recommend establishing “travel rotations for residents in states with access to safe abortion to receive abortion training.” However, the study suggests that travel may not be feasible for many residents who train in regions with limited access to abortion.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, which accredits residency programs, has issued a proposal calling for alternative training in states that do not offer residency programs with abortion restrictions.

“The proposed revisions will help ensure that obstetrics and gynecology residency programs provide residents with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to practice comprehensive reproductive health care in the United States without violating any resident, physician educator, or residency program rules,” an ACGME spokesperson said in a statement.

The proposed revisions are still open for public comment before being presented to the ACGME Board.

Suh said she fears providers will become too insensitive to patients’ needs as they are now placed in uncertain situations when seeking an abortion.

“We do what’s best for the patient. We go through the best treatment, then the next,” she says. But she said the scope of her training and the care she could deliver would be compromised if she were to enter a state abortion clinic.

She added that she thinks doctors should do everything they can to do no harm, and that “it’s very mentally taxing when there’s a whole set of rules that prevent you from giving a patient the best possible care.”

Suh says that even though abortion is in a less restrictive state, there is still a widespread effect.

“Even though we’re in a state where abortion is very legal, we’re seeing an increasing number of people coming in to see what options they have to be permanently sterile,” Suh ​​said.

Both Sorias and Suh said they are concerned about adequate training because all residents in OBGYN have different policies.

“Every single OBG must be well-trained and skilled in providing abortions because this is life-saving care,” Sorias said. “So it makes no sense to me that over 50% of the country’s OBGYN providers are in a position where they don’t know how to do that. I’m very sad and scared.”

Maureen Phipps, CEO of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said following Rowe’s overturn, “The impact on physician training is profound, and the consequences are long-lasting.”

“Medical education must be comprehensive, and our trainees must be prepared to meet all patient needs with confidence. 44% of OBJ residents are now training in states where abortion is mandated, and patients must ask the obstetrician whether or not to give birth. He was able to achieve the quality of training we all expect,” he said. Phipps said in a statement.