Peer-reviewed research doesn’t make front-page news all that often, but a grim report from Idaho statisticians grabbed public attention in late July. The lead researcher, Dr. Ed McEachern, and family physician Dr. Deb Roman joined the City Cast Boise podcast this week.
What the Numbers Mean
Starting in August 2022, McEachern’s team of researchers tracked Idaho’s 268 obstetricians. By December 2024, 114 of them had left the state, retired, or quit. When accounting for the 20 new OB-GYNs who moved here, 35% of Idaho’s OB-GYNs had closed their practices in just over two years.
Before this data analysis, Idaho already ranked among the bottom of the barrel for fewest OB-GYNs per capita of any state. When you take over one third of those doctors out and add 30,000 people to Idaho’s population in one year, McEachern said, “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that we’ve got a problem with access. And delayed care is bad care.”
“So many things are lost when people feel that they can no longer practice in this state,” Dr. Roman said. “And not only does it affect the medical community … but these are people in our communities, our neighbors, and our friends.”
While Boise is feeling the loss of the physicians and community members keenly, the City of Trees is relatively safe compared to the rest of the state. Some 85% of practicing OB-GYNs in Idaho are concentrated in the seven most populated counties. Across the state’s remaining 37 counties, there are only 23 physicians to provide obstetrics to 569,000 people.
What’s Next?
Long-Term: OB-GYN Recruitment
Most doctors work at or near the same hospital in which they trained. None of Idaho’s universities have an obstetrics residency program, which explains why the state is already at rock bottom for obstetricians. It also makes it even harder for hospitals to recruit out-of-state OB-GYNs to come here when their colleagues are already leaving.
Short-Term: Legislature to Reconvene
McEachern’s analysis ended in December 2024, weeks before the 2024 legislative session began. During that session, the Republican supermajority kept chatter about tempering Idaho’s abortion bans to a minimum.
After fighting the state’s bans every step of the way, the largest lawsuits against the state over abortion have all been settled or put on ice. In April, the last major contender implemented a small but significant exception to Idaho’s almost complete abortion ban.
In Adkins v. The State of Idaho, a judge ruled that abortions could be provided in Idaho if a doctor judged that their patient faced a “non-negligible risk of dying sooner without an abortion.” The state could have appealed that ruling, but instead largely celebrated it.
Three years after Idaho’s first abortion ban went into effect, Idaho has limited exceptions for the health of the parent, and exceptions for rape or incest only if the parent reports to law enforcement and can get an abortion within the first trimester of pregnancy. All but two doctors and Planned Parenthood could be eligible for prosecution if they refer patients out of state for an abortion.
In the Interim: A Ballot Initiative Building Momentum
With so few options left, a group of Idahoans started a new organization called Idahoans United for Women and Families and decided to take the issue of abortion out of the courtroom and back to the ballot box.
Earlier this summer, they began gathering signatures for their ballot initiative, which would be on the November 2026 ballot if it qualifies. You can read the full initiative for details.
