94 of 268
Idaho had 268 obstetrician-gynecologists when its abortion ban took effect in 2022. By December 2024, 94 had stopped practicing obstetrics, left the state, closed their practices, or retired. Only 20 new OB-GYNs were recruited during that period. A net loss of 35% in 28 months.
94 of 268 OB-GYNs gone. 35% of the workforce in 28 months. Only 20 replacements recruited.
Dr. Kylie Cooper, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, relocated from Boise to Minnesota in April 2025 to practice in a state with “broad abortion rights.” She was not alone. The doctors who specialize in the highest-risk pregnancies were among the first to leave.
60 Miles, 45 Without Cell Service
In March 2023, Bonner General Health in Sandpoint closed its labor and delivery unit. The hospital served a community of about 10,000 people and cited the “legal and political climate” as a factor. Three health systems total have shuttered obstetric services in Idaho.
Patients from Sandpoint now deliver at Kootenai Health, more than 60 miles away. Forty-five miles of that route have no cell phone service. Dr. Brenna McCrummen, an OB-GYN at Kootenai, described patients who delivered on the roadside and babies who needed NICU care after the long transfer.
In northern Idaho, women now wait five months for an annual gynecology exam. In the state’s 37 least-populated counties, 23 OB-GYNs serve 569,000 people.
What Made It Worse
Idaho’s abortion ban criminalized providing an abortion except to prevent the death of the pregnant person. Doctors who perform the procedure face two to five years in prison. The law created a chilling effect on emergency care, because the line between a life-threatening complication and a prosecutable abortion is a judgment call that doctors now make with a prison sentence attached.
Then the federal cuts arrived. Idaho has 350,000 residents on Medicaid. The One Big Beautiful Bill’s Medicaid cuts project $3 billion in funding losses for Idaho over the next decade. 37,000 residents could lose coverage entirely. Rural hospitals that depend on Medicaid reimbursements face closure.
The Idaho Hospital Association warned that before hospitals close entirely, expect more labor and delivery service closures.
The National Pattern
Idaho is not unique. Texas saw a 56% increase in maternal mortality in the first year of its abortion ban. States without bans saw a 21% decrease during the same period. Nationally, 116 rural hospitals have closed their labor and delivery units since 2020. 27 of those closures happened in 2025 alone.
OB-GYN residency applications dropped 10.5% in states with total abortion bans. In states without bans, the drop was 5.3%. The training pipeline is drying up where it is needed most.
35% of U.S. counties are maternity care deserts. Idaho’s ban accelerated the crisis the rest of the country is building toward.
2026 Ballot Initiative
Organizers are collecting signatures to qualify a ballot initiative in November 2026 that would establish reproductive freedom rights in Idaho’s constitution and end the criminal penalties that drove out a third of the state’s OB-GYNs.
Read more on the Reproductive Rights hub and our Dobbs anniversary brief.