Jaci Statton filed a 16-page complaint after being refused medical care.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is said to be called “America’s most pro-life governor” following his complete ban on abortion after Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey were overturned. However, people countrywide are left questioning how the “pro-life” governor can create laws that will allow women to die.
Jaci Statton and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a 16-page complaint on Sept. 19 against the University of Oklahoma Medical Center and Oklahoma Children’s Hospital after they refused to provide a life-saving abortion earlier this year. The complaint alleged that the two hospitals violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act when they denied her care. EMTALA is a federal law that requires hospital emergency departments to provide “stabilizing treatment,” including abortion care.
The complaint, officially filed with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, follows a severe and deadly complication of Statton’s pregnancy which would have killed her had she not received an abortion. Statton had a partial molar pregnancy, a rare complication in which the mother’s chromosomes are present, but the father supplies two sets of chromosomes; this means the fetus has 69 chromosomes, which occurs when two sperm fertilize an egg. The symptoms include severe bleeding, high blood pressure, preeclampsia, a rare form of cancer and if left untreated, death.
After feeling like she would pass out and realizing that her jeans were soaked in blood, Statton raced to the hospital only to hear that her fetus was not viable due to the partial molar pregnancy. Doctors told her that her life would be in danger if an abortion could not be performed soon, yet doctors refused to perform this abortion. Statton attempted to get an abortion at three hospitals before being told, “We can’t touch you unless you’re crashing in front of us.” Statton said the hospital’s only suggestion was to “wait in the parking lot until I was about to die.” While this treatment may surprise those living in states with access to reproductive care, this is commonplace in a state where medical professionals can be charged with a felony and face five years in prison if they do not comply with a vague law written in 1910.
On May 31, the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down two state laws banning abortion, SB 1503 and HB 4327. Though these two laws were deemed unconstitutional, Oklahoma’s 1910 law still stands. The year 1910 was 113 years ago, before women had the right to vote, when Black people were still segregated and four years before the First World War. This extremely outdated law put a woman’s life in danger after doctors were understandably afraid to give her the adequate medical care she needed to survive. Nancy Northup, the president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, believes that “what these laws are forcing physicians to do is to weigh the very real threats of criminal prosecution against the health and well-being of their patients.”
Despite the severe risk of hemorrhaging, Statton and her family drove to Wichita, Kansas, where she could finally receive the care she desperately needed. The full-time mother continues to face the consequences of delayed treatment, including surgery to remove more cancerous tissue and the possibility of chemotherapy. Out of fear of suffering another pregnancy complication in Oklahoma, Statton opted to undergo a tubal ligation to prevent any future pregnancies. Statton knew the doctors wanted to help her, but they were in a precarious situation where hospital guidelines and state laws offered confusing and contradictory information.
In late April, the Physicians for Human Rights released a study that surveyed 34 hospitals to collect data on their abortion policies and ability to provide reproductive care. The study found “Not a single hospital in Oklahoma appeared to be able to articulate clear, consistent policies for emergency obstetric care that supported their clinicians’ ability to make decisions based solely on their clinical judgment and pregnant patients’ stated preferences and needs.” Twenty-two of these hospitals were simply unable to provide any information about procedures and support for doctors when it was determined that it was necessary to terminate a pregnancy to save the life of a pregnant patient. Only two of these hospitals provide legal support for doctors in these situations.
While one of the study’s authors Dr. Michele Heisler was shocked about “the confusion, the contradictory statements, the misinformation” found in Oklahoma hospitals, these results should not come as a surprise. According to the Commonwealth Fund, Oklahoma ranks 49 of 51 states — including the District of Columbia — in healthcare. When ranking states, these rankings considered reproductive care and women’s health, acknowledging “high and increasing rates of maternal mortality, inequities in pregnancy-related outcomes for Black and American Indian/Alaska Native women, and rising rates of other avoidable deaths.”
If Stitt is the pro-life governor he claims to be, he will pass legislation increasing healthcare access across Oklahoma. Instead, he prides himself on promising Oklahomans to sign every pro-life bill that crosses his desk. While CNBC’s yearly rankings place Oklahoma in 38th for technology and innovation, 48th for education, and 49th for life, health and inclusion, Stitt is focused on bringing Oklahoma back to 1910.
“Abortion bans across the nation are exposing pregnant people to risks of death, illness and injury, including loss of fertility,” states Northup. “The women standing up today survived, but it is only a matter of time before someone does not.”
