According to Oklahoma’s own health department, the state ranks 40th in maternal mortality. According to the CDC, Oklahoma persistently ranks among the states with the worst rates (40th) of maternal deaths in the U.S. “Between 2017-2019, the Oklahoma maternal mortality rate was 23.5 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. This is above the national average of 20.1 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births and above the Healthy People 2030 target goal of 15.7.” The latest data from the CDC says the rate in Oklahoma is 30 per 100,000 births. In California, the rate is 10 per 100,000. Having a child in Oklahoma is three times as dangerous as having a child in California and that difference is about to get worse.
Consider this story from NPR. “The molar pregnancy Jaci Statton had would never become a baby. It was cancerous, though.
At the last hospital in Oklahoma she went to during her ordeal last month, Statton says staff told her and her husband that she could not get a surgical abortion until she became much sicker.
"They were very sincere; they weren't trying to be mean," Statton, 25, says. "They said, 'The best we can tell you to do is sit in the parking lot, and if anything else happens, we will be ready to help you. But we cannot touch you unless you are crashing in front of us or your blood pressure goes so high that you are fixing to have a heart attack.'"
Mrs. Statton received this crazy advice because providing, prescribing, or advising a woman about an abortion in Oklahoma is a felony that may result in up to five years in prison. Hospital policies are very confusing on the issue. Mrs. Statton is a married mother of two. More detail on her story is instructive.
“Jaci Statton's pregnancy ordeal began in late February. She's a stay-at-home mom living near Shawnee in central Oklahoma. She and her husband, Dustin Statton, have three kids – two seven-year-olds and an eight year old. Dustin is an oil field technician, and they have a fishing guide business – she says she and her family go fishing every day. They sound like ordinary people who are working hard to provide for their family.
After weeks of feeling terrible – nauseous and dizzy and weak – Statton had a sudden episode of heavy bleeding that sent her to the emergency room. At her OB-GYN the next day, she learned she had a type of molar pregnancy, in which some of the tissue is cancerous. Molar pregnancy happens when a fertilized egg has too many chromosomes. It does not develop into a viable fetus. It is usually a benign condition, but in about 15% of cases, like Jaci's, it is cancerous. Her doctor told her she was at risk of hemorrhage and even death, but that she couldn't get treated there.
The treatment for a patient in her condition is a dilation and curettage or D&C – an abortion procedure that clears pregnancy tissue from the uterus. Over the course of a week, again and again, she says doctors told her they could not care for her.
After a week of being transferred to three different Oklahoma hospitals, Statton says her doctors actually suggested she leave the state and go to a place where an abortion is legal.
She and Dustin ended up driving three hours to an abortion clinic in Kansas where she was able to get a D&C. She's now facing another surgery to remove more cancerous tissue, and she may need chemotherapy. Mentally, she says, it's been rough.”
Can you even imagine? Try to put yourself in Jaci’s place. Receiving the news that your pregnancy will not produce a baby is hard. Learning that you have cancer is harder. Being refused life saving care is worse. She faced a horrible health situation and the law made it worse. How much delay occurred in addressing her cancer? Is that the reason it is more advanced and requires additional treatment? Legislators know little or nothing of pregnancy complications like a molar pregnancy. Mixing politics and medical care is dangerous.
That is such a sad story. I don't know why politicians think they know more than the medical professionals.
This is a horror - she has something cancerous - a cancer - and is told nothing can be done because in this case it would be considered abortion though it could never be a viable foetus. Insane. One thing: I would have left much sooner - this was something cancerous.