Jonna Quinn was initially thrilled when she got her first job after her medical residency, working as an OB-GYN in Mason City, Iowa. It was less than two hours down the road from West Bend, where she grew up on a farm. But the hospital started restricting certain birth control options and fertility treatments based on its affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church, she said. At the same time, her unit was increasingly short-staffed as other obstetricians left and retired. At one point, Quinn said, she was seeing up to 50 patients a day. “That is twice what a normal OB-GYN will see in a day,” she said. “I knew I was going to miss something, because there’s no way somebody can function at that level.” In spring 2024, Quinn decided to leave — not just Mason City, but Iowa entirely. At the time, the state Supreme Court was on the verge of approving a law banning abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy, with very few exceptions. It was the last straw for Quinn, who got a job in Minnesota and moved her family there. Minnesota has constitutional protections for abortion. “I could either stay and ruin myself and my career and my mental health and my relationship with my children, or I could go and continue to practice OB, which had always been my dream,” she said. A few months after Quinn moved away, Iowa’s abortion ban went into effect on July 29, 2024. A Severe Shortage…
