My hardest decision: Practicing medicine in Idaho

The decision to continue my medical training in Idaho was one of the most difficult and frustrating choices I’ve ever had to make. It should have been easy. 

Idaho has invested an enormous amount of money in family medicine residencies and is historically home to some of the best full-spectrum family medicine programs in the nation. Medical students from across the country are drawn here. Also, I love Idaho. My family lives here. My friends live here. The people I care the most about caring for live here. 

Idaho is losing OB-GYNs after strict abortion ban. But health exceptions unlikely this year.

Yet, Idaho’s trigger ban and increasing criminalization of abortion providers made my choice feel impossible.

I vividly remember the day in summer 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Idaho’s trigger ban on abortions to continue in good faith of the law while they deliberated on how the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) might affect it. That day marked a crossroads for me.

The day prior to their ruling, I had been purely excited about pursuing my medical training in Idaho. But its devastating ruling reminded me of the tenuous place women’s health occupies in Idaho. It reminded me of all of the reasons why I knew training in Idaho would be hard. It made me anxious, sick to my stomach, and deeply sad.

And then the Idaho legislative session started, and I again saw all the challenges being posed to LGBTQ+ care, pediatric care, women’s health care and mental health care. While these challenges sometimes made me want to tear all my hair out of my head, they also gave me a reason to stay. 

When I think about why I chose to try to stay in Idaho to pursue my residency, I think about the high school girls I’ve coached in basketball and worry about what will happen to them if the political landscape doesn’t change. I think of my friends and family members who are pregnant and worry about what might happen to them before their pregnancies hit the point of viability. I think of my parents and grandparents and worry about who will care for them if all our doctors flee Idaho.

The people in the state I call home deserve exceptional health care. They deserve physicians who care for them and can look after their medical needs, and they deserve neighbors who will fight every day to rectify the deeper collateral damage that inescapably accompanies such restrictive laws as the abortion trigger ban.

To the people of Idaho: I’m an aspiring medical provider, and I plan to stay here for you. I’m choosing to stay and fight because you deserve nothing less.