With the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade, hospitals are concerned about additional challenges when it comes to recruiting and retaining medical staff, Bloomberg Law reported Aug. 9.
The nation's highest court overturned the constitutional protection for abortion June 24, returning the authority to regulate abortion to states. Now hospitals must navigate a legal patchwork of court decisions across state lines, as well as how state laws could affect where physicians and other medical staff decide to practice. Those challenges present themselves in a hiring climate already cooled by staff retirements, resignations and other factors.
Some medical staff are less open to taking jobs in states with strict abortion bans, making out-of-state recruitment more challenging, recruiters for Merritt Hawkins, AMN Healthcare's physician recruiting division, told Bloomberg Law.
"Hospital administrators have also expressed their concerns about staffing shortages, particularly among nurses and other staff, who may refuse to participate in treating certain patients out of fear that they, too, could be criminalized for the treatment decisions of physicians and others," Jennifer Avegno, MD, director of the New Orleans Health Department, wrote in an affidavit to a Louisiana district court, according to the publication.
Laws related to abortion differ by state. For example, in Ohio, a ban on abortions once the fetal heartbeat is detected remains in effect pending a legal challenge from abortion providers, according to Bloomberg Law.
Tristi Muir, MD, chair of the OB-GYN and Women's Health Institute at Cleveland Clinic, told the publication Cleveland Clinic expects to lose physicians as a result of divisions regarding abortion among states.
To read the full Bloomberg Law article, click here.