Convenience Big Store: Is the Texas doctor shortage about to get a lot worse?

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Disappearing OB-GYNs in Texas?

Whether you support access to abortion or not, former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards said something in an interview on a podcast earlier this week that could be concerning for all Texans.

Richards told interviewer Kara Swisher that medical students she recently spoke to in Louisiana who are studying obstetrics and gynecology talked about how once they get their degrees, they were planning to practice in another state with less restrictive abortion laws.

"None of them really want to stay in Louisiana," Richards said.

While it was largely anecdotal, it had me digging into a new report from the Association of American Medical Colleges that shows states with full abortion bans, like Texas, are seeing a decline in residency applications not just for obstetrics and gynecology, but for a range of specialties including emergency medicine and pediatrics.

Residency applications for all specialties in the U.S. dropped slightly by 0.4 percent according to the report, but in states with an abortion ban, those numbers were down even more. Those numbers declined 4.2 percent for the 2023-2024 application period.

In Texas, the drop was even bigger at 11.7 percent for all specialties, but among just OB-GYN residency applications it was a 16 percent drop.

This gets to the larger concern that the state's abortion laws aren't just stopping abortions but could cause an even greater shortage of medical professionals in Texas than already exists. Already, about half of the state's 254 counties lack any women's health provider, according to a report from the Texas Department of State Health Services. And another report released in 2022 warned that the current shortage of total physicians statewide would continue to grow through at least 2032.

"Current projections for medical education enrollment indicate that the state's medical education system will not create a supply of physicians that can meet projected demand," that report states.

But importantly, that report was completed before the Dobbs ruling that allowed Gov. Greg Abbott to ban almost all abortions in Texas, even in cases of rape and incest. It was also just before the Association of American Medical Colleges started seeing a drop in residency applications for specialties.

Jeremy Wallace, Texas politics reporter

jeremy.wallace@houstonchronicle.com

Who's up, who's down

Up: George H.W. Bush.

He won't be around for his 100th birthday on Wednesday, but you know the former president and Houston Congressman would have wanted to be jumping out of an airplane as he did every five years on his birthday from age 75 to 90. Among the events honoring his birthday this week will be his grandchildren parachuting for him Thursday morning as part of the events at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library & Museum in College Station. It caps off with a Robert Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett performance.

Down: Hunter Biden.

The president's son was convicted Tuesday of all three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018 when prosecutors argued, he lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.

What do you think? Hit reply and let me know.

What else is going on in Texas

Kyle Rittenhouse is interviewed by Cassandra Spencer during the

Photo by: Jason Fochtman, Staff Photographer

Texas Gun Rights names Kyle Rittenhouse new outreach director

Texas Gun Rights, based in Weatherford, has announced Kyle Rittenhouse as it new outreach director.

Adrian Gutierrez steers the boat as he and his father Alex prepare to fish for shrimp at sunrise Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022, in Galveston Bay. The pair fish for shrimp when oysters are not in season.

Photo by: Jon Shapley, Staff Photographer

Why are Texas shrimpers dying at a staggering rate?

Over half of the 201 fishermen who died from traumatic work injuries in the Gulf of Mexico during the past two decades were shrimpers.

Messengers raise their ballots in support of a motion put up for vote during a Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting Tuesday, June 11, 2024, in Indianapolis.

Photo by: Doug McSchooler, AP

Southern Baptists consider plan to bar churches with women pastors

More than 10,000 voting representatives have gathered in Indianapolis for the opening of the Southern Baptist Convention's two-day annual meeting.

FILE - Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton makes a statement at his office, May 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas. A lawyer for embattled Paxton said in a Monday, July 3, 2023, statement that the Republican will not testify in his upcoming impeachment trial. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Photo by: Eric Gay/Associated Press

Texas sues to block new fed rule on access to some gender transition care

The federal government says providers can't deny gender care to transgender people that would be provided to others for other purposes.

Pick of the day

Delegates and guests cheers on Democratic gubernatorial challenger Beto O'Rourke as he delivers his speech during the 2022 Texas Democratic Convention general session at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, July 15, 2022.

Photo by: Tom Fox/Staff Photographer

No one has loomed larger in Democratic politics in Texas during the last six years than Beto O'Rourke. But reporter Edward McKinley explores how the party is trying to build off the excitement of his campaigns, yet chart a path of their own.

What else I'm reading

U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey is pushing the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the Tarrant County jail after it was reported that 63 inmates have died in the jail or soon after experiencing a health crisis there since 2017. Reporter Eleanor Dearman of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes that Sheriff's Office data shows 11 deaths were due to COVID and 32 from other natural causes. But others were from overdoses, accidental deaths and suicides.