No one could say: Accessing Emergency Obstetrics Information as a Prospective Prenatal Patient in Post-Roe Oklahoma
By: Physicians for Human Rights, Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice,
Center for Reproductive Rights
April 25, 2023
Not a single hospital, of the 34 in the study, could offer clear information about emergency abortion care in post-roe Oklahoma. 2023 study on emergency obstetrics in post-roe Oklahoma. Click to download the full report.
Most Oklahoma hospitals are unable to explain their policies on emergency abortion care to prospective patients.
Our new report paints an alarming picture of pregnant Oklahomans’ inability to receive clear information on how they will be treated at hospitals if they experience dangerous pregnancy complications. These findings raise grave concerns about the ability of a pregnant person in Oklahoma – and in the other 11 states with similar extreme bans – to receive necessary information to make decisions about their medical care, and their ability to receive medically-necessary treatment.
Not a single hospital in Oklahoma appears able to articulate clear, consistent policies for emergency obstetric care that support clinicians’ ability to make decisions based on their clinical judgment and pregnant patients’ preferences and needs. Oklahoma hospitals offered researchers opaque, contradictory, and incorrect information about abortion availability and approval processes in obstetric emergencies.
Report Cover: 2023 study on emergency obstetrics in post-roe Oklahoma. Click to download the full report.
What Can we do
We are calling on the Oklahoma legislature to repeal Oklahoma’s abortion bans and decriminalize abortion. We also urge Oklahoma’s hospitals and clinicians – as well as state and national medical associations – to speak out against laws criminalizing abortion or otherwise restricting access to abortions, including during obstetric emergencies.