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‘My baby's not gonna make it and neither am I’; Women flee Okla. for life-saving abortions

She needed an abortion to save her life. Oklahoma hospitals wouldn’t help her

Jaci Statton was unable to get what she said was a medically necessary abortion in Oklahoma as doctors cited the state's multiple abortion bans, even though medical exceptions are supposed to be allowed.
Ben Felder
Oklahoman

Jaci Statton clutched her stomach in pain as her husband pleaded with the hospital's doctor to save his wife’s life. Her pregnancy was causing vaginal bleeding, high blood pressure and intense nausea, symptoms of a partial molar pregnancy, a condition where the egg does not fertilize correctly and the fetus will never become viable.

The longer the fetus remained inside her, the higher risk she would be for internal bleeding, kidney and liver failure, and even a stroke.

But the 25-year-old from Meeker already had visited one hospital where doctors said they couldn’t perform an abortion and now was being told the same thing at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center on a Wednesday evening in March.

“They said, ‘We can't touch you because of the Oklahoma law,’” Statton recalled the doctors telling her husband, even as they acknowledged the pregnancy posed serious health risks and removing the fetus was the best medical decision.

Oklahoma’s Republican lawmakers responded to the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade last year by quickly enacting multiple abortion bans, and although exceptions for a medical emergency or to “save the life” of the pregnant person are included, doctors across the state have dealt with confusion and fear of prosecution when caring for women like Statton. 

Doctors at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center, a level 1 trauma center in Oklahoma City, had given Statton fluids after one night in the hospital and now wanted to send her home with instructions to quickly return if her health worsened.

But because Statton lived about an hour's drive away, her husband worried they might not make it back in time.

Hospitals across the state have expressed confusion over the state's multiple abortion bans, according to a new study.

“They said the best thing that we can tell you is go sit in the parking lot until something serious happens and then come back and we’ll work on you,” Statton told The Oklahoman. 

“They weren’t being mean, they just said that’s the only option you have. And then the doctor said, ‘You know, we can't do an abortion here but there are other states that can.’”

Two days later, Statton, her husband, and her mother-in-law drove to a Wichita abortion clinic, the closest facility that would terminate her pregnancy. As her family waited in the parking lot surrounded by protestors with signs that said “stone all the whores,” Statton had her fetus removed.

“I felt so alone,” Statton said. 

More:Oklahoma Supreme Court finds 'limited right' to abortion in state constitution

Confusion on abortion exemptions found at most hospitals

Abortion rights advocates protested the overturn of Roe v. Wade last year by the U.S. Supreme Court, which was followed by multiple abortion bans in Oklahoma.

Confusion over what constitutes a medical emergency exception to receive an abortion is common across Oklahoma, according to a new study from three abortion rights organizations. 

“Simulated patients” called every hospital in the state in November and December to inquire about emergency pregnancy care and what policies were in place if their lives were in danger and a pregnancy needed to be terminated. 

“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,” reported the study, which is titled “No One Could Say: Accessing Emergency Obstetrics Information as a Prospective Prenatal Patient in Post-Roe Oklahoma.

Commissioned by Physicians for Human Rights, the Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice, and the Center for Reproductive Rights, the study claimed hospital representatives “frequently demonstrated confusion,” and some callers “received contradictory information from separate staff within the same hospital.” 

“I’m not sure we realized just how much confusion there was,” said Michele Heisler, one of the study’s authors and the medical director at Physicians for Human Rights.

“The workers (at hospitals) were wonderful, staff was really trying to convey information, but honestly some of the assurances they tried to give callers were kind of frightening.”

One hospital told a caller, “It is tricky because of state law, but we will not let the mom die.”

Another inaccurately said, “Nowhere in the state of Oklahoma can you get an abortion for any reason.” 

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Oklahoma attorney general: ‘Doctors must be given substantial leeway’

Jaci Statton had a partial molar pregnancy, which meant the fetus would never survive.

Statton was surprised to learn she was pregnant in January, but she and her husband were excited by the news. The couple had three young children but believed another would bring even more joy to their rural Oklahoma home. 

Statton’s husband works in the oil field, and the couple also guides fishing tours, with a particular love of catching alligator gar in the Red River. They already imagined a new son or daughter joining their siblings in fishing excursions across Oklahoma. 

Everything about the pregnancy appeared healthy during the first OB/GYN appointment. The couple discussed baby names and friends began buying gifts for the nursery. 

But less than two weeks later Statton nearly passed out while peeling potatoes with her daughter. She then noticed blood on her pants. Doctors at a Shawnee emergency room said she was having a miscarriage. 

“It happened so fast and we were crushed,” Statton said. 

A few days later her primary doctor at St. Anthony’s Shawnee Hospital performed an ultrasound that discovered the partial molar pregnancy. 

“The best way I can describe it is ultrasounds are normally round, but mine was a bean shape with these pockets around it,” Statton said. “One of those (pockets) had ruptured and made me bleed.”

More:What different court rulings mean for the abortion pill mifepristone and for Oklahomans

Because St. Anthony’s Shawnee Hospital would not perform an abortion, citing their Catholic faith and state law, Statton recalled, the couple went to the University of Oklahoma Medical Center. 

Doctors in Oklahoma City initially wanted to remove the fetus, Statton said, but the ultrasound technician disagreed. 

“(The doctors) said you’ve got to get a medical abortion,” Statton recalled. “But the ultrasound tech said there's nothing wrong. You can't touch her.”

It’s possible the ultrasound technician reported a “heartbeat," which two of the state’s abortion bans specifically reference as evidence of life. The University of Oklahoma Medical Center did not respond to a request for comment. 

Rabia Muqaddam, an attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the Supreme Court of Oklahoma recently confirmed that a person has a right to terminate a pregnancy if their life is in danger.

Demonstrators gathered last year at the Oklahoma state Capitol to protest the removal of abortion rights.

“We got a state Supreme Court decision that said people in Oklahoma have a fundamental right to receive care in Jaci’s circumstances,” said Muqaddam, who believes Statton should have been a clear example of a medical exception.

“But in some ways, the (Oklahoma) Supreme Court opinion increased the confusion because there are two other laws that are still in effect that are abortion bans modeled after Texas’ SB8.” 

Senate Bill 8 in Texas is a ban on abortion except to save the life of a pregnant patient. But a recent lawsuit filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights argues the exception language remains too vague. Five women involved in the lawsuit claim they were denied medically necessary abortions at Texas hospitals.

In its ruling last month, which overturned one of the state's abortion bans, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma said the state constitution includes "an inherent right of a pregnant woman to terminate a pregnancy when necessary to save her life.” The majority opinion also said: “Requiring one to wait until there is a medical emergency would further endanger the life of the pregnant woman and does not serve a compelling state interest.”

But Heisler, one of the authors of the “No One Could Say” study, said the calls to Oklahoma hospitals prove there is not much clarity about what constitutes a medical exemption or what it means to “save” a person’s life. 

“Does the pregnant person have to be at the point of dying to receive an abortion?” Heisler said. “Many hospitals didn’t seem to know.” 

Attorney General Gentner Drummond said doctors should have "substantial leeway" in deciding if an abortion is medically necessary.

Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, criticized the state Supreme Court ruling, calling it an “activist” court. 

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office said it was preparing to update guidance following the court’s decision, according to a statement to The Oklahoman. The attorney general’s office also said, “Doctors must be given substantial leeway in making this determination.”

But Muqaddam said the attorney general’s statement doesn’t help doctors. 

“‘Substantial leeway,’ just like ‘substantial bodily impairment’ and ‘preservation of life,’ all of these are nonmedical terms, which just adds more confusion,” Muqaddam said.

“The only real way to remove this threat to people's lives is to undo the criminalization of abortion because it’s the lack of clarity along with the extreme penalties that have caused the chilling effect for doctors.”

Constitutional abortion rights:Oklahoma Supreme Court justices deeply divided

Statton: 'I should have been with my own doctor'

Jaci Statton traveled to a Wichita abortion clinic after two hospitals in Oklahoma denied her the procedure even as she faced a medical emergency.

On a chilly windswept Friday in March, Statton’s husband and mother-in-law drove her 180 miles to the Trust Women clinic in Wichita, Kansas, the closest facility that would perform an abortion. 

Last year, Kansans voted to protect abortion access

Statton had to enter the clinic alone and have her belongings searched in a process similar to entering an airport. Tight security is standard at the clinic, which saw one of its doctors murdered by an anti-abortion extremist 14 years ago

A clinic employee sat Statton down to ask about her options in seeking an abortion, to which Statton said she had no other choice because of her medical condition. The worker responded by throwing a stack of papers in the trash can, which confused Statton. 

The papers were likely state-required outlines of abortion risks meant to cause women to reconsider the procedure, which abortion rights supporters call “bias counseling” because some of the risks are not medically accurate. 

“She's like, ‘You're not alone. This trash bag is filled (with the papers of) women just like you that did not have a choice,’” Statton recalled the nurse telling her. 

Multiple laws in Oklahoma now ban abortion, limiting it to a medical emergency. Some women are traveling out of state to clinics that are still operating.

Statton’s situation was not unique, but she was alone from her family in accordance with the clinic’s strict security. Taken to another room, she was put under anesthesia for the procedure. 

Statton had already felt dejected at the loss of a future child and frightful about the abortion process. But anger hit her as she woke up from the procedure. 

“I was so mad because I should have been with my own doctor. I absolutely love her. She makes me feel safe,” Statton said. “I was really mad that I didn't get to be at the hospital that's close to my home. My husband should have been by my side when I woke up. I shouldn't have to be in this clinic to do this.”

When she left the clinic and got in her husband’s truck, Statton’s mother-in-law covered her head with a blanket and turned the radio volume up. It was an attempt to shield her from the protestors that had gathered in the parking lot. 

“I wasn’t trying to get rid of my baby,” Statton said, referring to the protestors that still give her husband nightmares. “I went there because my baby was not going to make it and neither was I.

“If these people only knew.”