Impact Beyond State Lines: Other States Grapple With Consequences Of Oklahoma's Abortion Ban

Lawmakers voted to ban abortions in the state last May with exceptions for medical emergencies, leaving Oklahoma with one of the strictest abortion laws in the nation. Now, other states are feeling the impact of this decision.

“We want to make Oklahoma the most pro-life state in the country. We want to outlaw abortion in the state of Oklahoma,” Governor Kevin Stitt said.

That was a quote from Stitt as he signed the abortion ban into law in May of 2022. It’s been over a year since the ban, and a new report from Kansas shows thousands of women have traveled across state lines to receive abortions.

“This does have a chilling effect,” Zack Gingrich-Gaylord, the communications director for Trust Women, said. “Oklahomans have fewer rights now than people in Kansas or in California or, you know, in any state where abortion is legal.” 

A report from the Kansas Department of Health shows 2,026 Oklahoma women received an abortion in Kansas in 2022. That number is up from 137 in 2021.

“We're already seeing the consequences of even just a year end to lack of access to abortions,” Gingrich-Gaylord said.

Trust Women is a clinic that used to provide abortion services both here in Oklahoma and in Kansas. Their Oklahoma clinic is still open, but now provides services other than abortions due to the Oklahoma ban.

The Trust Women in Kansas has seen a huge influx in patients following the abortion ban in Oklahoma, along with other states like Texas and Missouri.

“People should not be traveling eight hours, 10 hours just to receive a pill,” Gingrich-Gaylord said.

Oklahoma currently follows the 1910 law- that makes intentionally performing an abortion on a woman a felony, punishable up to five years in prison, unless it is “necessary to preserve her life.”

“Quite frankly, there are not enough appointments for the number of people in this region who need this type of work done,” Gingrich-Gaylord said. “We’re receiving thousands of calls every day. Due to these abortion bans, in the last couple of weeks we've received over 15,000 phone calls. This is not a solution to healthcare.”

Gingrich-Gaylord also said that many patients are having to wait weeks to be seen, which can be dangerous if the baby or mother’s life is at risk. 

“You may have to wait two to four weeks to get an appointment in Wichita,” Gingrich-Gaylord said.

Gingrich-Gaylord also said traveling from out of state can be unsafe for pregnant women.

“We're seeing more complicated medical cases as they come in. people being pushed farther along into their pregnancies due to delays caused by abortion bans,” Gingrich-Gaylord said.

Regardless of the obstacles, Gingrich-Gaylord said Trust Women will continue providing care for any women who need it.

“We're going to continue to do our best to provide this essential care for as many people as we can,” Gingrich-Gaylord said.

The report from Kansas shows that in 2022, they provided 3,843 abortions to Kansas residents and 8,475 abortions to out-of-state residents. This is the highest number of abortions given to out-of-state residents reported.

There were more out-of-state abortions given in 2022 than there were in 2020 and 2021 combined and over 2,000 more than any other year reported in the study.

Besides the 2,026 Oklahoma women, the other out-of-state abortions include:

1. Texas: 2,978
2. Missouri: 2,883
3. Arkansas: 405
4. Louisiana: 88
5. Nebraska: 12
6. Mississippi: 10
7. Tennessee: 10
8. Florida: 8
9. California: 6
10. Illinois: 4
11. Iowa: 4
12. Colorado: 3
13. North Carolina: 3
14. Georgia: 2
15. Minnesota: 2
16. New York: 2
17. Nevada: 1
18. Ohio: 1
19. Oregon: 1
20. Pennsylvania: 1
21. Washington: 1

To view the full report from the Kansas Department of Health, click here.