OKLAHOMA COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR) – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says an Oklahoma hospital did not violate federal law when doctors told Jaci Statton who had a nonviable pregnancy to wait in the parking lot until her condition worsened enough to qualify for an abortion under the state’s strict ban.
The Associated Press first reported the development.
26-year-old Statton was among several other women who last year challenged abortion restrictions that went into effect in several states after the Supreme Court revoked the nationwide right to abortion in 2022.
The rejection came at some point last week.
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KFOR interviewed Statton who, in September said, “The ultrasound tech refused to sign off on the exception. he insisted that he could hear a heartbeat and told the doctors that he, that they, could not touch me due to the ban.”
During Satton’s pregnancy, she said doctors at OU Health agreed she would need an abortion and should receive care since her health was at risk.
That’s when her family was told something they didn’t want to hear.
“They told him they couldn’t touch me until I was crashing and that we should wait in the parking lot until I was about to die,” said Statton.
It was then that a complaint had been filed with the U.S. Health and Human Services by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
The complaint said that OU Children’s Hospital violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) when having denied Statton an abortion.
The complaint came a little more than a year after Biden’s administration informed hospitals that they must provide abortion services if the mother’s life is at risk.
At the time, President Joe Biden’s administration said EMTALA supersedes state abortion bans that don’t have adequate exceptions for medical emergencies.
The Biden Administration’s denial of Statton’s claim is the latest in the ongoing scrutiny over how to apply EMTALA in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.
It also underscores the uphill legal battle reproductive rights advocates when pushing back against state abortion bans.
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Ultimately, Statton and her husband traveled out of state to have an emergency abortion rather than wait for her health to deteriorate.
In October, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — which operates under Health and Human Services — informed Statton that its investigation could not “confirm a violation” of the emergency care federal law.
