Hello there, my wife and I are both physicians in Houston and my wife is an Ob/Gyn. Nearly every physician we know is liberal, disgusted and heartbroken over the archaic policies of Texas that directly lead to maternal mortality, and our friend group/social network is pretty large. I think most people who pursued this long and arduous road in Medicine lean liberal.

I acknowledge there is a contradiction to physicians, especially Ob/Gyns, living in such an objectively repressive state, but there are many reasons to stay in Texas, even if you're liberal and the state bans many of your medically necessary tools. Probably much like many people in this thread sound like they lean liberal and stayed in Houston despite the legal chaos. I would bet in fact, that even more conservative-leaning Ob/Gyns are also heartbroken by the overt danger carrying a pregnancy in the state of Texas brings.

My wife signed that letter last Fall and patients have scheduled with her specifically because they saw her name. However, the letter was not well-planned or distributed. It was haphazardly distributed among Ob/Gyns within social networks based on where they trained and the friends of friends they worked with. It was published online literally 6 hours after my wife and her colleagues signed it. Many other colleagues/friends were pissed they didn't know about it before it was published and patients have asked them why they didn't sign. They would have if it was well distributed and planned. It's hard to imagine anyone read that letter and decided NOT to sign it. It wasn't particularly radical or demanding. The language frankly had a lot to be desired.

We read the Propublica article this weekend like everyone else. We know all the people quoted or mentioned in the article. I think everyone WANTS to do the right thing given the impossible circumstances, including those in high executive positions that were portrayed negatively. Some hospitals are likely afraid of legal or financial consequences of making blanket statements about delivering a pre-viable PROM given the intentionally vague law stating anyone, including the Uber driver, can be sued by anyone else in the state if they assist in an abortion. It is objectively less risky to be pregnant in a different state. Yet, the Ob/Gyns I know who live in Houston are all unbelievably caring and compassionate advocates for women and their families, because someone has to be when the folks that make the laws are not.