Abortion bans may be reshaping early pregnancy care

Clinical takeaway: In states with total or near-total abortion bans, clinicians should anticipate greater need for cross-specialty coordination in early pregnancy care and use clear institutional guidance to reduce unnecessary delays or referrals driven by legal uncertainty.

The effects of abortion restrictions may extend well beyond abortion itself. Family medicine and emergency medicine physicians are important sources of early pregnancy care, particularly in settings where specialty care is limited, raising concern that changes in their scope of practice could further strain access.

Researchers interviewed 55 physicians in 14 states with total or near-total abortion bans between May 2024 and May 2026: 25 ob-gyns, 21 emergency medicine physicians, and 9 family medicine physicians. Forty-four practiced under total bans and 11 under near-total bans; roughly three-quarters practiced in the South.

Across specialties, physicians described legal uncertainty changing clinical decision-making. Some said they stopped providing reproductive health services they believed were clinically appropriate and within their expertise, particularly miscarriage care, and instead referred patients to specialists or out of state. Family and emergency physicians described deferring more care to ob-gyns, while some ob-gyns reported turning to maternal-fetal medicine specialists for decisions they previously would have made themselves.

Five themes emerged: narrowing scope of practice and increasing specialist referrals; decisions about whether to remain in abortion-ban states; disruption of professional and ethical values; effects on physician training; and burnout. Physicians reported reduced hands-on reproductive health training for residents, recruitment and retention difficulties, and concern that trainees could enter independent practice less prepared to manage early pregnancy conditions.

The qualitative study cannot establish the magnitude of workforce changes, and it included only physicians who remained in abortion-ban states. Still, the authors conclude that the consequences may reach “beyond abortion provision to the broader physician workforce responsible for miscarriage management, contraception, and other forms of evidence-based reproductive health care.”

Source: Newton-Hoe E, et al. (2026 Sep 29) O&G Open. Effects of Abortion Bans on the Physician Workforce