Oklahoma activists and physicians have criticized Gov. Kevin Stitt's task force aimed at supporting pregnant people in the wake of House Bill 4327 and Senate Bill 612 banning abortion in the state.
In an effort to provide more resources to pregnant people before, during and after pregnancy, Stitt signed Executive Order 2022-14 in July. The order created a team of individuals who have experience with crisis pregnancy centers, reproductive health care or other nonprofit organizations aimed at alleviating the tribulations of early parenthood.
The Helping Every Life and Parent Task Force consists of 11 people who are expected to gather data, analyze and make recommendations to Stitt regarding reproductive health care in Oklahoma by Oct. 28.
Several activists and licensed physicians in Oklahoma have criticized this task force’s motives, while also saying it is too little and too late to help and support pregnant people in the state. Abortion rights advocates throughout the state have continued to lobby for more comprehensive reproductive health care despite the abortion bans, even more so after the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling.
Tamya Cox-Touré, an abortion rights activist and executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, recently spoke at a panel held by the OU Human Relations department about the consequences of the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling in Oklahoma.
“(An issue with the task force) is that only after we lose abortion access (does) Gov. Stitt think it is necessary to have this task force when coalition partners have been having these conversations for a very long time,” Cox-Touré said. “It’s again another blind spot of Gov. Stitt when it comes to reproductive health care.”
One of the main concerns with reproductive health care in a state that has banned abortion is easy and unhindered access to other forms of contraception, according to Oklahoma activists. The task force has discussed increasing Medicaid coverage up to 12 months postpartum but has yet to make specific recommendations aimed at contraceptive access.
“Reproductive health care should not be determined by your zip code, where you live or by your income level,” Cox-Touré said. “If the task force can come up with intentional solutions to that, that will be a success.”
Dr. Allie Regens, a licensed OB-GYN who currently works for OU Health Physicians in Oklahoma City, shared similar sentiments with Cox-Touré on certain reproductive advocacy conversations having been prevalent for many years.
“There has been one good thing that seems to be coming out of it, which is the expansion of Medicaid to 12 months as part of that, something that we OB-GYNs have been working for my entire time as an OB-GYN,” Regens said. “So, since at least, probably six, seven plus years, I've been working on this, and it has gained no traction whatsoever.”
Juli Merciez, acting chair of the HELP task force, is a registered nurse and co-founder of residential maternity home The Cottage in Bartlesville. As an example of the types of methods crisis pregnancy centers and similar organizations employ, Merciez shared the program model she’s used at her organization in recent years.
The Cottage’s program model includes the clinic site itself, where they perform pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, arrange specific plans surrounding those circumstances and situations and “educate” patients. Furthering the support for people with uteruses in marginalized and disadvantaged communities is also something important to Merciez, who noted that mobile units that provide certain medical services could serve rural areas of Oklahoma.
“We see mobile units go out for mammograms, we see them go out for other areas of care. … I think that will be something that hits our list because we have a large rural population in the state of Oklahoma,” Merciez said.
Merciez said increasing and improving sex education in Oklahoma public schools is the best way for people to avoid unintended pregnancies and lower the rate of teen pregnancies in the state.
“We’ll have to talk about sex, healthy relationships, birth control, family planning … (and) what that looks like for each and every individual in the state of Oklahoma. If we don’t do a good job about that up front, then we’re going to continue to have a lot of the circumstances that we have had for many, many years,” Merciez said.
Merciez also provided context on pregnant people leaving Oklahoma for abortions, saying that the task force will continue to support those people through their decisions as well. This idea contradicts HB 4327 that states those who aid and abet pregnant people seeking abortion can be prosecuted.
“Women are still going to get abortions in Oklahoma. They’re just not going to do it in our state,” Merciez said. “And so our goal is still going to continue to support them as much as possible, overcome circumstances and empower the woman to make the best decision she possibly can.”
Stitt only appointed one licensed OB-GYBN to the task force, Dr. Michelle Brunnabend. Brunnabend is from Southern California but now lives with her family in Oklahoma where she practices medicine with her husband at the Aspen Women’s Center.
She expressed confusion when asked about Merciez’s previous statement regarding pregnant Oklahomans choosing abortion.
“I don’t think I knew that that was a thing,” Brunnabend said. “If that is fact, it hasn’t been written in any of our stuff, and it hasn’t been discussed.”
Brunnabend said she aims to be a more neutral force with her role on the task force, but also expressed discontent with the composition of the task force.
One concern surrounding the task force’s composition is that they are making recommendations for Oklahomans when the task force is composed of individuals primarily unaffected by the abortion ban in Oklahoma.
“I’m just more of the science-minded person who is there to educate our patients and offer resources within the constraints of the law here,” Brunnabend said. “There should be more non-faith based people on the committee. I walked in there and realized that I might be one of the only non-faith based people.”
As a medical professional, Brunnabend said she has a unique perspective when approaching the fact that most crisis pregnancy centers in the state are religiously affiliated.
“We have to acknowledge that not everyone is a Christian or faith-based. And so I think that having only faith based centers may put up some barriers for those people who are seeking out care,” Brunnabend said.
There are over 45 crisis pregnancy centers in Oklahoma. The number of these that are religiously affiliated is ambiguous, but the majority have religious connections.
Out of the five individuals Stitt appointed for the task force, four of them are connected to faith-based organizations: Merciez, Gayla White, David Lewis and Deirdre McCool.
The goal of the task force is to support crisis pregnancy centers and uplift faith-based communities associated with aiding pregnant people in the state. However, Brunnabend said hospital settings over these crisis pregnancy centers provide a more nuanced depiction of the struggles pregnant people face.
“As a medical professional, I see … the emotional, the financial and the physical struggles that these women go through, and the choice that they have to face and make,” Brunnabend said. “That gives me a little bit more of a real-life, different perspective than the people who are just seeing people at the first moment that they’re going to a crisis pregnancy center.”
A large issue with crisis pregnancy centers is their tendency to “mislead” patients regarding the options they provide, according to Planned Parenthood. The organization reported that nearly all the time, the options suggested by these centers rely on the pregnant person to carry out a full-term pregnancy. Additionally, Planned Parenthood says crisis pregnancy centers have no required adherence to any typical medical ethics code because they do not provide true medical care.
When focusing on the topic of solutions to problems pregnant people have faced in Oklahoma for years, the task force has made a few recommendations, including a policy change to increase the income threshold from 138 percent to 205 percent of the federal poverty level regarding comprehensive pregnancy-related benefits.
Cox-Touré noted this fact, declaring that it is a significant issue with Stitt’s H.E.L.P. task force.
“When you have a task force created by a governor, where there are not impacted people on the task force, that is a problem,” Cox-Touré said. “The idea to have crisis pregnancy centers that have been known to be anti-abortion advocates, known to give false information to pregnant people in fear that they may end their pregnancy is not an entity that should be on a task force around helping people.”
