A study from the Association of American Medical Colleges revealed a small percentage of new doctors applying for residency programs are avoiding states with tight restrictions on abortions.
The study, released Thursday, found the number of unique medical school graduates who applied to residency positions during the 2022-2023 application cycle decreased by about 2% from the previous year. The number of those who applied to states with abortion bans decreased by 3%.
The largest drop in applicants across all states was seen in emergency medicine (-21.4%), with a 5.2% drop seen in OB/GYN applicants. The study found that states with near-total abortion bans saw a 10.5% decrease in OB-GYN applicants.
The study said the decrease in OB/GYN applicants year over year was highest in states with complete bans (-10.5%) and lowest (-5.3%) in states without restrictions.
“Given the small scale of changes in the number of applicants year to year, there was only a small effect observed in abortion-ban states from 2021-2022 to 2022-2023,” the study said.
The study said despite all the changes regarding abortion access following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended a federal right to abortion, all residency positions in OB/GYN were filled this year and with a similar number as last year.
“Most large specialties also filled at rates similar to previous years, with the exception of emergency medicine [which saw a significant decrease in the number of applicants nationwide],” the study said. “Across all applicant types [MD, DO, and International Medical Graduates], the number of unique OB/GYN applicants decreased slightly.”
An August 2022 report by the journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology found that 44.8% of accredited OB/GYN residency programs are in states that were certain or likely to ban abortion once Roe v. Wade was overturned.
“Therefore, of 6,007 current obstetrics and gynecology residents, 2,638 (43.9%) are certain or likely to lack access to in-state abortion training,” the report said. “Preparation for the reversal of Roe v Wade should include not only a recognition of the negative effects on patient access to abortion care in affected states, but also of the dramatic implications for obstetrics and gynecology residency training.”
But the AAMC study said applicants are likely to want to match somewhere — even the least desirable location — rather than nowhere.
“Preliminary examination of one year of data suggests that restrictions on women’s health care may disproportionately decrease the likelihood that [unique medical school graduates] will apply for residencies in states with the most restrictive practice environments, although the effect is small,” the study said.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.