NJ health care feeling aftermath of Supreme Court abortion decision

🔺Abortion restrictions felt across U.S.

🔺NJ resources are strained, experts agree

🔺OBGYN training impacted nationwide

NEW BRUNSWICK — Just over two years since the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, all states are feeling the effect of no constitutional right to abortion.

Medical experts at a Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School roundtable on Wednesday largely agreed with a congressional report saying the Dobbs decision is undermining OB-GYN training nationwide.

Over the same period, there has been a grim rise in crucial health risks for women.

More than 100 pregnant women in medical distress who sought emergency room help were turned away or negligently treated since 2022, according to a recent Associated Press analysis.

The congressional report was based on interviews with leaders from 20 OB-GYN residency programs across 15 states.

It found negative consequences in not just restrictive states, but also in states like New Jersey where abortion care has been codified under law.

New Jersey providers said they have seen a surge in applications for residency programs where such OB-GYN training entails abortion care.

There has also been an influx of out-of-state patients, from Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Texas, who have dealt with massive bills and insurance issues, not to mention potential delay of care due to the distances.

Another growing issue: liabilities that come with restrictive abortion laws have already prompted some OB-GYN professionals to leave those states, while causing those entering the field to reconsider where they will practice.

The result is an expanding vacuum of medical care for patients, now faced to travel further and deal with delays in care that could result in greater illness and even death.

That trend was not just a key takeaway in the congressional report but also in a recent brief issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

New Jersey medical professionals who took part in the roundtable discussion also agreed that crucial medical skills were in real jeopardy of not being passed on to nearly enough physicians, with life-altering consequences.

Only around 25% of OBGYN were providing abortion care before the Dobbs decision, according to Dr. Lily Bayat, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at RWJMS.

She said that now, seeking out such training would become considerably harder.

Dr. Glenmarie Matthews, assistant professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and director of Complex Family Planning Division at RWJMS, said that medical residents and patients flocking to New Jersey were dealing with many challenges with insurance liability and unaffordable expenses.

Matthews said even within New Jersey, which has no legal limits on it, there are pockets where abortion care is simply not available.

Bayat and Matthews noted that a lack of adequate OB-GYN training would make it harder for doctors in remote areas to deal with patient emergencies beyond childbirth — like postpartum hemorrhaging.

Severe bleeding after childbirth — postpartum hemorrhage — is the leading cause of maternal deaths world-wide, according to the World Health Organization.

Maternal death rates in the U.S. were already higher than 13 other high-income nations, according to an international report released in June from the Commonwealth Fund.

More than 80% of maternal deaths in the U.S. are likely preventable, the study also found, and two-thirds of them happened in the days and months following childbirth.

"This report, built on interviews with residency programs training the next generation of doctors, lays bare the harsh truth about the state of women’s health care," U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J. 6th District, said in a written release following the roundtable event that he attended.

"The key finding—that the Dobbs decision is already undermining OBGYN training and escalating life-threatening risks for women—paints a dire picture. If we don’t take swift action, the standard of medical expertise will plummet, putting the lives of women everywhere, including in New Jersey, in grave danger,” he said.

The Women’s Health Protection Act, proposed by Democrats in the House and U.S. Senate, would restore a patient's right to abortion nationwide and ensure that doctors can provide comprehensive reproductive health care.

“The findings in our new report are a wake-up call for all of us,” Pallone said. “If we don’t take action, we are setting up a generation of doctors and women for failure."

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