This National Doctor's Day, I Want Doctors to Be Allowed to Treat Patients

Anti-reproductive health and anti-transgender legislation prevent doctors from providing life-saving healthcare

Today, on National Doctor's Day, doctors around the United States cannot provide life-saving medical care to their patients.

On a good day, practicing medicine can mean navigating complex care decisions. The current political climate makes it increasingly difficult to provide even the most basic care for our patients. In particular, the surge of anti-abortion and anti-transgender legislation is killing our patients.

Doctors like me are committed to providing high-quality care to transgender and pregnant-capable patients. Medical decisions should be based on the best available evidence and clinical expertise, not partisan ideology and fundraising.

Governments are Preventing & Prohibiting Medical Care

Recent anti-transgender and anti-abortion legislation are clear examples of governments inappropriately taking over the practice of medicine. Doctors are trained to interview patients, conduct physical and psychological assessments, and prescribe medications, surgeries, and other interventions. Legislators and judges don’t have these skills.

Abortion bans are impacting patients across the country. Numerous states make it a crime for physicians to provide abortion or information to pregnant patients.

Just last night, Kentucky lawmakers passed a bill restricting how doctors treat transgender children, overriding the governor’s veto and significant objections from state and national medical associations and the parents of trans children.

Autonomy

By restricting access to safe medical treatments and procedures, these laws interfere with patient autonomy: the ability for patients to choose the right care for themselves. You can’t have informed consent when treatments supported by robust evidence are off the table because some judge or state representative found it objectionable based on nothing more than partisan politics and bias.

These legislators’ narrow focus on getting re-elected or raising more money doesn’t serve the people that matter the most. They don’t care about the negative impact on patients, or worse, explicitly want to harm their own constituents. And they have successfully co-opted physicians into their plans.

Do No Harm

Denying patients access to abortion? Denying access to gender-affirming care? Forcing people to de-transition? These are essential healthcare services being denied by supposed public servants. Physicians are supposed to do no harm. Yet, when providing beneficial care is illegal, we are forced to harm our patients or be punished for helping them.

Anti-Abortion Legislation

Anti-abortion legislation restricts pregnant people’s access to safe, life-saving abortion services. This has devastating consequences for their health and well-being. These laws often require doctors to provide medically inaccurate information to their patients, perform medically unnecessary procedures, or force patients to carry pregnancies to term against their will, including pregnancies that exacerbate patients’ severe, life-threatening medical conditions. These laws prevent physicians from meeting our ethical obligations to patients.

Anti-Transgender Legislation

Gender-affirming healthcare is life-saving healthcare. This includes psychotherapy, education, hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and surgeries - all of which should be considered to alleviate gender dysphoria and improve mental and physical well-being. As doctors, we know that denying our patients access to these treatments can have serious consequences, both physical and mental. It can lead to increased anxiety, depression, and suicide. Human Rights Campaign recently released data showing that more than half (50.4%) of transgender teens live in states where they have lost or are at risk of losing access to age-appropriate, medically necessary gender-affirming care. When governments limit access to these treatments, they deny patients the care they need and infringe on their basic human rights.

Oppose Harmful Medical Laws

As healthcare providers, our alliance is supposed to be with our patients - not politicians. We should be able to provide the best possible care based on medical evidence and our clinical expertise. However, these laws take decision-making power away from patients and put it in the hands of strangers. It is essential that we oppose these laws and advocate for policies that promote what is best for patients.

All I want for National Doctor's Day is for physicians to have the ability to practice medicine without harmful partisan interference. We owe it to our patients to be their advocates and to provide them with the care and support they need to live their lives to the fullest.