As Iowa’s maternity care deserts continue to grow, doctors say the state’s new abortion ban will only make matters worse
CNN
Dr. Emily Boevers is the only full-time OBGYN at a critical access hospital in a rural city in Iowa about 10 miles from the farm she grew up on.
Dr. Emily Boevers is the only full-time OBGYN at a critical access hospital in a rural city in Iowa about 10 miles from the farm she grew up on. She’s the only full-time OBGYN in the county, in a state that just banned most abortions. Iowa enacted a law last week banning abortion once fetal cardiac activity can be detected, around six weeks into pregnancy, before many people even know they’re pregnant. The law includes exceptions for rape, incest and medical emergencies that threaten the life of the mother, and fetal abnormalities that are incompatible with life. “What’s going to come to fruition at some point is that for a lot of us, we’re going to have a moment where we have to decide if we’re going to do the right thing for the patient that’s in front of us and risk our license, or if we want to step back and potentially let a patient – let a mother in our community – die from an obstetric complication, but preserve our license and our ability to continue to care for the other people in our rural communities,” Boevers said. It’s a nightmare scenario that could become reality for doctors in Iowa. It’s also one that some doctors just aren’t willing to face. Health care leaders are sounding the alarm that the constraints placed on them by the new abortion law could drive maternity care providers out of state and deter new ones from coming in, at a time when Iowa desperately needs them.
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