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CV NEWS FEED // A LiveAction fact-check challenged Vice President Kamala Harris’ claim that pro-life laws endangered Jaci Statton’s life, revealing that medical negligence and miscommunication, not state legislation, were responsible for the delays in her care.
During the recent presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris claimed that pro-life laws have made it criminal for doctors to provide necessary health care, citing the case of Jaci Statton, an Oklahoma woman allegedly denied care for a life-threatening condition.
However, an examination of Statton’s case provided in a September 14 article from LiveAction revealed that her life was not put in jeopardy because of pro-life laws, but rather due to medical negligence and miscommunication within the hospital system.
According to LiveAction, Statton was diagnosed with a partial molar pregnancy in the spring of 2023, a condition in which an embryo has too many chromosomes, giving the baby a survival chance of less than 25% and putting the mother at risk of health complications, including cancer.
LiveAction reported that Statton should have qualified for a legal abortion under Oklahoma’s HB 4327 law, which allows for abortion when the mother’s life is at risk.
Despite this, doctors hesitated to act, reportedly telling Statton they could not intervene “until you bleed out” or until some other severe complication was experienced, despite the fact that Statton had “cysts surrounding where the embryo should be,” and that “a pre-cancerous cyst in her uterus had ruptured.”
Statton was transferred between multiple hospitals. At the OU Health University of Oklahoma Medical Center, Statton recalled that an ultrasound technician detected a fetal heartbeat and consequently voiced opposition to performing the abortion that day.
At the Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, Statton was reportedly told to wait in the parking lot until her condition worsened. Eventually, she left the state to undergo an abortion in Kansas.
LiveAction clarified that Oklahoma law does not require doctors to wait until a woman is in immediate danger before intervening.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court reaffirmed in March 2023 that abortion is permitted when a woman’s health is at risk, not just her life. Statton’s case fell within this exception, as Oklahoma’s statutes do not require waiting until a woman’s condition deteriorates to the point of life-threatening danger.
LiveAction reported that Statton filed a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which mandates emergency care regardless of state laws. The Biden administration ultimately rejected the complaint, ruling that OU Health University of Oklahoma Medical Center did not violate federal law in refusing to provide an abortion.
