Georgia sees drop in medical resident applicants after Supreme Court abortion ruling
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in June 2022 allowing states like Georgia to institute abortion bans, states with abortion bans or restrictions started attracting fewer medical residents, the new doctors who work in training at academic hospitals.
Court decisions in 2022 and 2023 including by Georgia’s state Supreme Court affirmed its abortion ban after about six weeks of pregnancy.
New research by the Association of American Medical Colleges shows applications by graduating medical students for residency positions are lower now in states with abortion bans and other significant abortion restrictions. The nonprofit organization KFF Health News interviewed medical students who confirmed their reasoning.
Georgia is working to attract doctors to cope with a nationwide doctor shortage, and research shows that medical residents are most likely to stay and work in the state where they did their residency training.
Here is the Georgia data from Association of American Medical Colleges. It shows the trend in medical graduates applying for residencies in Georgia, in all specialties, compared to the national average. In Georgia the decline followed years of increases.
2023-2024
- Georgia: 9.5% decrease
- U.S. average: 0.4% decrease
2022-2023
- Georgia: 1.0% decrease
- U.S. average: 1.8% decrease
2021-2022
- Georgia: 5.1% increase
- U.S. average: 0.5% increase
Source: Association of American Medical Colleges
About the Author
Ariel Hart is a reporter on health care issues. She works on the AJC’s health team and has reported on subjects including the Voting Rights Act and transportation.
