A rural hospital in northern Idaho will stop delivering babies or providing other obstetrical care, citing a shifting legal climate in which recently enacted state laws could subject physicians to prosecution for providing abortions, among other reasons.<\/p>\n

Bonner General Health in Sandpoint will discontinue obstetrical services in mid-May. It also cited a decreasing number of deliveries and a loss of doctors among other factors in its decision.<\/p>\n

Those pregnant in the city of about 9,000 \u2014 with an average annual snowfall of about 60 inches (150 centimeters) \u2014 will most likely have to travel about 45 miles (70 kilometers) to Coeur d\u2019Alene for care, or to hospitals farther away in Idaho, Washington and Montana.<\/p>\n

The decision to discontinue providing obstetrical services was emotional and difficult, hospital officials said in a news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have made every effort to avoid eliminating these services,\u201d Ford Elsaesser, Bonner General Health\u2019s Board president, said in the release. \u201cWe hoped to be the exception, but our challenges are impossible to overcome now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of deliveries had been declining for years with 265 births recorded at the hospital in 2022, the statement said. Births also have been decreasing nationally and older people have been moving into the Sandpoint area, officials said.<\/p>\n

Hospital officials said Idaho\u2019s legal and political climate was partly to blame.<\/p>\n

After the United States Supreme Court stripped away constitutional protections for abortion<\/a> last year, Idaho banned nearly all abortions<\/a> in measures that subject physicians to prosecution for providing any abortions, even if needed to protect the health of a pregnant patient.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Idaho Legislature continues to introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care,\u201d the hospital statement said. \u201cConsequences for Idaho physicians providing the standard of care may include civil litigation and criminal prosecution, leading to jail time or fines.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Physicians could face felony charges and a medical license revocation for violating the law, which the Idaho Supreme Court determined earlier this year is constitutional. A federal judge has stopped Idaho from enforcing the ban in medical emergencies at Medicare-funded facilities.<\/p>\n

Highly respected, talented physicians are leaving, according to Bonner hospital officials, who said recruiting replacements would be extraordinarily difficult.<\/p>\n

Dr. Amelia Huntsberger, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Bonner General Hospital, moved to Sandpoint in 2012 to work in the area, according to a court filing last year supporting an effort to halt the abortion ban.<\/p>\n

She told the Idaho Capital Sun in Boise by email that she will leave the hospital and the state because of the abortion laws and because of the Idaho Legislature\u2019s decision to discontinue the state\u2019s maternal mortality review committee.<\/p>\n