2011 Survey Found Jewish Obstetrician-Gynecologists Overrepresented Among Those Who Provided Abortions

Claim 1: Jews are overrepresented as abortion doctors

Verdict: True.

The X post from @forbiddenmerch (Aug. 31, 2026) asked @grok whether Jews are overrepresented as abortion doctors. Grok’s reply:

“A 2011 national survey of US OB-GYNs found Jewish physicians provided abortions at a 40% rate versus 14% overall, comprising 26% of providers in the sample while about 13% of respondents. Jews are roughly 2% of the US population and around 14% of physicians. This is the primary available data on the topic; no recent comprehensive figures exist for all abortion providers. Most abortions are performed by OB-GYNs. Higher rates align with Jewish support for access and traditional emphasis on maternal health.”

• The survey: Debra B. Stulberg, Annie M. Dude, Irma Dahlquist, and Farr A. Curlin mailed a national probability sample of 1,800 practicing U.S. obstetrician-gynecologists age 65 or younger from October 2008 to January 2009. Names came from the AMA Physician Masterfile. The paper, "Abortion Provision Among Practicing Obstetrician-Gynecologists," ran in Obstetrics & Gynecology in September 2011 (PMID 21860290). After ineligible addresses, 1,154 physicians responded (66%). 1,144 answered the abortion-provision question.
• The headline rates: After survey-design weights, 14.4% of practicing obstetrician-gynecologists said they provided abortion services. 40.2% of Jewish respondents did, the highest rate of any religious group in the table. Physicians with no religious affiliation were next at 26.5%. Evangelical Protestants were at 1.2%. Compared with no religion, Jewish identity had an adjusted odds ratio of 3.27 (95% CI 1.54-6.93) in a model that also included sex, age, race, region, urban zip code, immigration, religiosity, and whether the doctor worked in a religious facility.
• Share of providers: Table 1's weighted estimates put Jewish physicians at 26.5% of those who provided abortions (68 of 194 unweighted) and 6.7% of those who did not (90 of 950 unweighted). Combining those weighted shares with the 14.4% provision rate implies Jewish physicians were about one in ten practicing obstetrician-gynecologists in that sample, and about one in four of the ones who provided abortions.
• Grok's "13% of respondents": That figure is the unweighted sample share (158 Jewish respondents out of 1,144, about 13.8%). The survey oversampled typical Jewish, South Asian, and Arabic surnames, then weighted the results to estimate the national specialty. Affiliation in the analysis is self-reported, not inferred from the surname list. The 26% provider share Grok used is the weighted figure. Mixing the two understates how large the gap is after the authors' own weights.
• Population baselines: Pew Research Center's 2020 survey of Jewish Americans estimated that 2.4% of U.S. adults are Jewish. A 2005 national mailed survey of 2,000 practicing U.S. physicians by Curlin, Lantos, Roach, Sellergren, and Chin found 14.1% of physicians were Jewish, versus 1.9% of the U.S. population in the 1998 General Social Survey. There is no current official physician-religion census. The 14% figure is the standard published estimate. Jews are overrepresented among physicians generally. In the Stulberg sample they were also overrepresented among the obstetrician-gynecologists who provided abortions, relative to the specialty.
• What the survey is not: It is not a roster of dedicated abortion-clinic staff, and it does not measure how many abortions each doctor performed. The authors warn that a yes/no question can count physicians who only rarely provide abortions, including in cases such as fetal anomaly. They surveyed obstetrician-gynecologists only. Family physicians and advanced practice clinicians also provide abortions. A 2001 National Abortion Federation member survey, cited in later reviews, found 62.9% of responding providers were obstetrician-gynecologists. The National Academies' 2018 abortion-care report likewise says obstetrician-gynecologists provide the greatest percentage. Grok's line that most abortions are performed by obstetrician-gynecologists matches that older membership mix. It is not a current volume census, and there is no official series of "abortion doctors" by religion.
• Why the rate is higher: The Stulberg paper did not ask physicians why they do or do not provide abortions. Grok's suggestion that the pattern "aligns with" Jewish support for access is consistent with public opinion. Pew's 2014 Religious Landscape Study found 83% of American Jews said abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Reform and Conservative Judaism officially support abortion rights. That is correlation, not a finding from the 2011 doctor survey.

In plain language:

Yes. In the main 2011 national survey of practicing U.S. obstetrician-gynecologists, Jewish doctors provided abortions at about 40% versus 14% for the specialty, and they made up about a quarter of the providers. Jews are about 2% of U.S. adults. There is no newer official count of all abortion providers by religion.