Reasons for both optimism and depression post-Dobbs

Recorded:
December 5, 2023
Speaker
Dr. Phyllis Leppert
Duration
00:02:01
TRANSCRIPT

Dr. Phyllis Leppert: I must tell you, when Dobbs came, that ruling came, I was really depressed, because I felt like everything I had worked for in my life was going away. It was a terrible time, and I still feel as if—so much of what I’ve worked for in my life and tried to accomplish, has been just wiped out. But I’m not giving up! (laughs) Never, never, give up, you just keep on going! Seeing that women are responding, by saying, “Wait a minute, this is not going to happen,” and they’re getting involved politically. This last election, the results in Kentucky, and Ohio, and Virginia, it was very heartening to me. So we’ll see what happens. I have to say, I’m optimistic. What makes me optimistic is the reaction of women themselves. How they responded. The information that’s coming out. It’s going to take a while, we have to get pretty smart about things and how we’re going to encounter and change the laws that need to be changed — and help people understand. But the other thing that’s happening, and it hasn’t happened to the degree that everybody understands it: but the fact that physicians– obstetrician/gynecologists –are leaving states, such as Idaho. That’s tremendous impact. It’s effecting other specialties besides OBGYN. It’s effecting radiology, pediatrics, everything. Then, the fact that people are not applying to residencies in states that have banned abortions, or that people are not going to medical schools there: this is going to have tremendous impact and tremendous impact on the kind of care that we give.

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