Fewer medical students are applying to residency in states with near-total abortion bans

For the second year in a row, fewer medical students are applying to residency programs in states with near-total abortion bans, according to a new data snapshot from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) released Thursday.  

Students in their senior year in a doctorate of medicine program have applied to fewer residency programs in general, regardless of which state the program is in, since 2022.  

But the AAMC’s new data shows there were larger decreases in applications to residency programs in states where abortion is almost entirely banned, indicating that medical school seniors may be avoiding these places.  

“States’ abortion-ban status may be correlated with program number and size, but these findings suggest that applicants may be responding to something independent of program size, particularly given two years of similar patterns,” the AAMC said in a statement.

The number of medical school seniors who applied to a residency program in states with near-total abortion bans dropped by 4.2 percent in 2024 compared to last year.  

Meanwhile, in states where abortion remains legal, residency applications dipped by 0.6 percent. 

Those numbers vary depending on physician specialty. In the data snapshot, the AAMC provided detailed application breakdowns for specialties that were the most likely to treat pregnant people and provide abortions, such as pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology and internal medicine.  

The number of applications to pediatric residency programs in states with near-total abortion bans dropped by 17.3 percent this year — the most out of all the specialties 

In the year after Roe v. Wade was overturned, the number of applications to OB-GYN residency programs in states with near-total abortion bans dropped by nearly 12 percent.  

In the most recent application cycle, applications to OB-GYN residency programs in states with the most restrictive abortion bans decreased by 6.7 percent, according to the data snapshot.  

While most OB-GYNs in the U.S. do not provide abortions, most abortions are performed by an OB-GYN. 

Applications to family medicine residency programs in states with near-total abortion bans among medical school seniors decreased by 7.6 percent in the 2022-23 cycle and by 5.2 percent in the 2023-24 cycle.  

Meanwhile, applications to internal medicine residency programs in states with near-total abortion bans declined by 7.9 percent in the most recent cycle, compared to 0.3 percent the year before.  

There are 14 states where access to abortion is almost completely banned, and many of those states are suffering from healthcare provider shortages that are only expected to get worse.

Those existing shortages will most likely worsen due to legislation deterring prospective doctors, warned Atul Grover, executive director of the AAMC Research and Action Institute.

“Rural states have appropriately attempted to attract and retain physicians by incentivizing them to stay in state for college, medical school, and residency training,” said Grover in an email to The Hill.  

States with large rural communities like Kentucky, West Virginia and Mississippi lose more than a quarter of their college graduates to other states every year.  

“Although these policies are effective, they may be undermined if states enact other policies that are viewed by physicians as violating their professional autonomy,” he said.