Charlie Kirk and academics both agree that it is difficult for women to have full-time jobs and have a family
Charlie Kirk’s statement that aspiring female physicians will need to choose whether to value a family or a career more has been given further credence from two academic papers.
The CEO of Turning Point USA told a female student who asked about balancing her interest in becoming a surgeon with having a family that she would “have to choose,” and while she could do both, there would be tradeoffs.
The statement drew criticism from both conservatives and liberals, even though as I previously pointed out, female medical groups affirm that there are obstacles with balancing family and work.
Now a study and a research letter add further evidence in support of the proposition that there are tradeoffs between family and work life. Even if the solutions proposed (like supporting in-vitro fertilization) are not aligned with my beliefs, the research shows it is correct to say women must make choices.
The July 27 paper in JAMA Network Open surveyed 1,056 physicians and fellows and found nearly half of them with children had reduced their work hours.
Nearly half “had passed up opportunities for career advancement among those with children,” the paper also reported. Thirty physicians with children dropped out of medicine completely (good for them).
“More than three-quarters of female physicians in our survey reported delaying childbearing due to medical training or career,” the paper found.
Another concerning finding was that 13 percent of OB/GYN professionals could not correctly identify when fertility declined in women.
A clear majority of the respondents, 75 percent, reported “delaying family building due to medical training or specialty choice,” the academic paper found.
Many of those who regretted their “family building” choices provided answers that aligned with what Kirk said. Some of the answers about what the respondents would have done differently included “483 respondents [45.7%] [who] said they would have conceived earlier” and “473 respondents [44.8%] [who] said they would have reduced work hours.” Nearly 40 percent “said they would have taken extended leave.”
In addition to IVF, the researchers also suggested that paid family leave of at least 12 weeks would be beneficial. But while that would be beneficial for bonding with the newborn, that hardly would make a difference for a female doctor with a four-year-old.
Instead, women should be encouraged to stay at home and not pursue high-stress, high-hour medical jobs.
Adding further to the evidence for regret is a separate research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine which found “physicians are twice as likely to experience infertility,” according to a write-up in MedPage Today.
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“Most of the 3,310 respondents (90.1% women) said they desired biological children (92.7%),” the research letter reported. “Of the 60.1% of participants who delayed childbearing due to training, 55.8% said they regretted it, particularly those ages 32 and up.”
The study is hardly from a conservative source – co-author Vineet Arora is a staunch advocate for the deliberate destruction of innocent preborn babies through abortion.
She previously praised an OB/GYN student who called her abortion a “gift” which allowed her to pursue medical school. “I felt a connection between my having an abortion and my ability to pursue my own education, to have economic freedom, to live my life the way that I wanted to,” Shira Fiscbach stated.
Another co-author with Arora on this paper is Stanford University doctor Arghavan Salles.
Salles and Morgan Levy, the author of this research letter, also teamed up to survey the abortion rate among doctors and medical students.
Without any apparent hint of irony, the same scholars praising women for having abortions are reporting on doctors who regret not having children.
Female physicians and aspiring medical students should consider the pain and regret that come from delaying childbirth and putting off a family. There are tradeoffs to all choices, and not having children is one of the harder ones to undo.
“You’re going to have to choose which one matters more,” as my former boss would say.
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IMAGE: Turning Point USA/YouTube
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