This is easy to say in theory when it’s not your career and your medical license on the line. Few doctors are willing to risk this. And it’s better for doctors who are against abortion bans to move to different states where they can continue to help patients vs. being made an example of by an ambitious prosecutor looking to make headlines, having their careers ended, and being unable to help patients at all going forward.
Not only their careers and medical licenses, but their freedom also. I don’t see abortion as murder, but the law in many red states is treating it as such so doctors would be risking quite a lot in order to perform abortions.
It would be easy for me (not a doctor and living in a blue state) to say “doctors should just do it,” but would I be willing to break a law I saw as unjust if it meant I’d not only lose my livelihood, but would be put on trial for murder? I’m not sure that the answer is yes and I couldn’t ask doctors in red states to do something that I’m not sure I’d do in that situation.
It would be easy for me (not a doctor and living in a blue state) to say “doctors should just do it,” but would I be willing to break a law I saw as unjust if it meant I’d not only lose my livelihood, but would be put on trial for murder? I’m not sure that the answer is yes and I couldn’t ask doctors in red states to do something that I’m not sure I’d do in that situation.
Honestly, I wish a lot more people would learn this.
There are so many armchair politicians/generals/doctors that continually say “Well you should just do this or that” when they don’t have to worry about the consequences of those decisions, but refuse to grasp the concept that the situation is entirely different when the proverbial gun is pointed at their head. They refuse to grasp the concept that maybe there is information they don’t even know that is actually driving those decisions behind the scenes, making their “just do it” mantra realistically impossible.
And then there are the ones who seem to be perpetually auditioning for the top spot in /c/iamverybadass or whatever the equivalent on here would be. The ones who make unverified claims of how long they’ve supposedly been in the industry or the ones who would say that they would “fight back” in whatever Rambo-esque terms they decide to use. Those are the ones who can at least be dismissed for having no clue what the hell they’re talking about 99.99% of the time.
/rant.
I assume your post is accurate to US medicine bc the welfare of the patient is the last priority you mention. Maybe single doctors will defy the bans, but doctors as a group are quite conservative and I’m unaware of them supporting anything but regressive and reactionary policies in the past. The AMA for example, were pioneers of lobbying government to outlaw abortion in the 19th century.
This has actually flipped now, more doctors are liberals than conservatives. Doctors are also overwhelmingly pro choice: https://core.wisc.edu/2021/12/06/cores-survey-of-doctors-highlights-widespread-support-for-abortion-access/
Harder to find evidence of historical attitudes, so not exactly sure when it flipped from the physician crusade of the 1800s against abortion, but here’s a survey from 1991 showing broad support: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1781824/
The modern AMA (as much as I personally dislike them, and honestly most doctors identity very little with them) was also totally against the Dobbs ruling: https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/dobbs-ruling-assault-reproductive-health-safe-medical-practice
For more accurate physician opinions you should also look at individual specialty groups, which tend to be much more representative of their members priorities. For instance ACOG, also totally against the Dobbs decision of course: https://www.acog.org/news/news-releases/2022/06/acog-statement-on-the-decision-in-dobbs-v-jackson
I’d also be quick not to jump to conclusions and assume a doctor’s unwillingness to break the law is entirely selfish with no regard to patient welfare. If they broke the law, after getting thrown in jail for murder and being unable to care for their own families and loved ones, they’d also be unable to see more patients, many of whom they would have been able to help and may not get help now. Doctors have many patients, not just one.
