VIDEO: Arizona’s strict abortion laws are driving away doctors

This is the state of reproductive health care in Arizona right now. An even more draconian law—one that outlaws abortions from conception forward, with an exception only to save the life of the mother—is wending its way through the courts, creating even more fear and uncertainty. “Like most doctors, I went to medical school to help people,” said Dr. Laura Mercer, associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix. “It is heartbreaking not to be able to provide the best care to my patients.”

Our correspondent explains…

@coppercourier This is the state of reproductive health care in Arizona right now. An even more draconian law—one that outlaws abortions from conception forward, with an exception only to save the life of the mother—is wending its way through the courts, creating even more fear and uncertainty. “Like most doctors, I went to medical school to help people,” said Dr. Laura Mercer, associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix. “It is heartbreaking not to be able to provide the best care to my patients.” @playboymanbaby gets into it… . . . . . . #arizona #az #phoenix #reproductiverights #arizonanews #aznews #azpol #azleg #arizonapolitics #arizonanews #aznews ♬ original sound – Copper Courier

“Like most doctors, I went to medical school to help people,” said Dr. Laura Mercer, associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix. “It is heartbreaking not to be able to provide the best care to my patients.”

Katharine O’Neill, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix, is exploring which OB-GYN residency program she will attend when she graduates next spring. Arizona is a place she’d like to stay because she has family here. But the abortion laws are working against it.

While attending a seminar on residency programs in states with restrictive abortion laws, O’Neill was told that in order to get proper training, residents would need to travel out of the state they were attending.

“The first question at the seminar I attended last week was, ‘how can I get my family planning rotation?’” O’Neill said. “The answer was, ‘You can get it, but you’ll have to leave the state for that.’ That’s not easy in the middle of your residency.”