Medical Society Responses to State Abortion Bans—No Role for Boycotts

Abortion access in the US was precarious before the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization. As a result of the decision, more than 20 million women lack access to virtually all abortion care. In a Viewpoint in this issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, Gross and colleagues argue that medical professional societies should only hold scientific meetings in states that protect abortion rights. They offer 3 reasons: (1) to "express the values of the health care profession," which center on patient autonomy; (2) to deprive states with restrictive abortion laws of meeting revenue; thus, medical societies would be "ethical consumers"; and (3) to avoid 4 attendees, including pregnant physicians who might experience a complication while traveling and physicians who provide abortion care in their home state and might be at risk for prosecution for care provided to patients from states with restrictive laws.