Even in our increasingly partisan society, you might have figured that your doctor's office would be neutral territory. But that just goes to show how naive you are.

A study from researchers at Yale University details significant differences in the way primary care physicians from across the political spectrum approach medical issues that touch on hot-button topics, such as abortion and gun control.

For instance, doctors were more likely to say that they would counsel a patient seeking an abortion to consider the mental health consequences of going through with the procedure if they were registered to vote as Republicans than as Democrats.

Likewise, doctors registered as Democrats were more likely to urge patients who owned guns to keep them out of their homes, while doctors registered as Republicans were more likely to ask if the guns were stored safely.

“Just as a patient may seek out a physician of a certain gender to feel more comfortable, the evidence suggests that a patient may need to make the same calculation regarding political ideology,” political scientist Eitan Hersh and psychiatrist Matthew Goldenberg wrote this month?in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Like any other Americans, doctors are entitled to their political views.

Hersh and Goldenberg wondered whether those views influenced their interactions with patients.

There was reason to believe they might. Among other things, studies have found “sharp differences” in the way Democratic and Republican doctors rate the Affordable Care Act, the law also known as Obamacare.

The Yale researchers also noted that the amount of money doctors have donated to political campaigns has more than quadrupled over two decades.

The researchers focused on primary care doctors — including internists, general practitioners and family medicine providers — in the 29 states where voters can register their party affiliations. They only included physicians who identified as either Democrats or Republicans, since the difference between these groups was likely to be the most pronounced.

Ultimately, they invited 1,529 doctors to complete an online survey asking how they would handle patients in a variety of scenarios. A total of 233 complied.

The results suggest that patients can expect to get different kinds of medical care depending on where their doctor lies along the political spectrum, the researchers wrote.

Hersh and Goldenberg wrote: “Given the politicization of certain health issues, it is imperative that physicians consider how their own political views may impact their professional judgments.”

karen.kaplan@latimes.com