ATLANTA — It’s a decision some Georgia OB-GYNs are making since the passing of Georgia’s six-week abortion ban.
Dr. Ash Panakam, a Georgia native, told Channel 2 investigative reporter Ashli Lincoln that she decided to do her residency to become an OB-GYN in Pittsburgh instead of Atlanta.
“And I felt like I was letting a lot of people down to make that choice not to come back,” she told Lincoln.
Panakam said her decision to not practice medicine in Georgia wasn’t political, but rather where she would get the most comprehensive training.
“These restrictions are affecting our ability to get necessary training,” Panakam said.
Doctors with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists were surveyed across the state.
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Some key findings include doctors fearing prosecution for treating pregnancy-related emergencies, doctors leaving Georgia, and some said they’ve stopped practicing altogether.
“Now we’re hearing from these doctors that they’re thinking about stopping the practice of medicine in Georgia,” U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff said.
Ossoff launched a federal inquiry into the impacts the abortion ban is having on medical care earlier this year.
“I continue to call on the state legislature to repeal this extreme abortion ban,” Ossoff told Lincoln.
State Sen. Ed Setzler, who sponsored Georgia’s Heartbeat Abortion Bill, sent Channel 2 Action News a statement, saying:
“The twin sisters ACOG and Planned Parenthood are the two most activist, proabortion lobbyist groups in the entire nation. ACOG members killed more than 60 million helpless human children through legalized abortion between 1973 and 2022 and are as mad as a hornet that their killing spree, focused on low-income minority children, has been slowed down by Georgia’s thoughtful, balanced heartbeat law. Jon Ossoff, who sadly believes in very little, is using OCOG abortion doctors to wage a doubt campaign that is carefully calculated to confuse Georgians into doubting our heartbeat law, when what they really want is to make killing healthy children through all 40 weeks of pregnancy legal once again.”
The Association of American Medical Colleges reported in 2024 that applicants to OB-GYN residency programs in abortion banned states dropped by 6.7%, compared to 0.4% increase in states where abortion is legal.
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