When an OB/GYN is antiabortion

Post Reports

When we talk about abortion access in the U.S., we talk a lot about Roe v. Wade, the actions of state lawmakers, the court system. But we don’t talk about doctors — and what they do or don’t say to patients behind closed doors.

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After Texas passed the country’s most restrictive abortion law, many abortion rights advocates feared that other states would follow suit — states like West Virginia that have already made moves in the past to restrict access to abortion.

But reporter Caroline Kitchener has found that there are other barriers to abortion already in place, some of which are invisible to us: “I had never even thought about this other barrier that is doctors,” Caroline said. “Doctors who might not talk to women about the option of abortion.”

Caroline has spent many, many months reporting on Byron Calhoun, the only high-risk pregnancy OB/GYN in central West Virginia. He also happens to be staunchly antiabortion.

Today on “Post Reports,” we talk about what that means for his patients — and, more broadly, how doctors’ political beliefs can affect the kind of care they provide their patients.