Hundreds of pregnancy-related prosecutions in Oklahoma, report finds

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma has had at least 222 criminal cases related to women’s pregnancies or births since the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed the state to end abortion access, according to new data released Tuesday by a nonprofit that advocates for pregnant women.

Nationwide, there have been over 900 such cases but this number is likely an underrepresentation of pregnancy-related prosecutions, according to the report released by Pregnancy Justice, which works to “defend the rights of pregnant people.” 

Of the 23 states reviewed in the report, Oklahoma had the second highest number of pregnancy-related prosecutions, trailing only South Carolina. That state had 381 cases filed. 

The organization attributes Oklahoma’s high number of cases to a 2020 Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruling that found an unborn fetus was protected as a child under the state’s child neglect statute. 

Wendy Bach, a professor of law and one of the co-principal investigators for the report, said Oklahoma is 1 of 3 states where a court has set this precedent. The other states are South Carolina and Alabama, she said. 

“No other states have those appellate opinions,” she said. “So those courts signed off and said, ‘This is a viable legal prosecution that makes a difference.’ … Because of that opinion and because of Pregnancy Justice’s extensive experience in working on this issue, we knew Oklahoma was likely to be a hot spot. So frankly, we devoted a lot of resources to finding those cases.”

While the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision upheld the right to abortion in the U.S. for decades, the nation’s high court overturned it in 2022, ruling that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion. Since then, abortion access has varied by state.

Oklahoma lawmakers have banned all abortions except to save the life of the mother. 

Bach said it’s difficult to compare the number of pregnancy-related prosecutions before and after the fall of Roe v. Wade because the methodology used to study the cases has changed. 

Since 2022, there have been many legal changes to scrutinize pregnancy, she said, including the codification of fetal personhood and use of criminal statutes for child endangerment prosecution. 

A vast majority of the criminal charges reviewed by researchers were related to child neglect, endangerment or abuse statutes, according to the report. 

“Oklahoma isn’t vastly different from the rest of our dataset,” Bach said. “They are charging on a theory of child endangerment based sometimes solely and sometimes in addition to other allegations based on drug use during pregnancy.”

Researchers found 13 cases nationwide where pregnant women faced allegations related to “obtaining, attempting or researching an abortion,” according to the report. While the charging documents noted those allegations, the women were charged with other offenses, the report found. 

Three of those were in Oklahoma, Bach said. 

“Criminalization does not create care,” she said. “It does not create health. It does not create safe families. In fact, we strongly believe that it deters women from precisely the care they desperately need.”

Most of the cases studied in the report stemmed from a medical setting where a pregnant woman’s health information was shared with the criminal legal system, according to the report. 

When women feel at risk seeking healthcare because it could put them or their pregnancy at risk, it deters them from going to the doctor for the care they need, Bach said. 

“People want to be moms and if they think they’re going to lose their children and be prosecuted, they’re not going to seek healthcare,” she said.

Policy needs to change so that healthcare providers can carry out necessary medical testing and patients can trust they won’t be reported and prosecuted, Bach said.