Oklahoma abortion ban delays care for partial molar pregnancy : Shots

Dustin and Jaci Statton in an engagement photo from 2021. Jaci found out she had a partial molar pregnancy and couldn’t get the abortion she needed in Oklahoma. They traveled to Kansas for care.

Rachel Megan Photography

Before February, Jaci Statton wasn’t particularly focused on Oklahoma’s abortion bans. “I was like, ‘Well, that’s not going to affect me. I won’t ever need one,’ ” she says.

She’s 25 and lives in central Oklahoma with her husband, Dustin, and their three kids — two 7-year-olds and an 8-year-old. They are a blended family with two kids from Jaci’s previous marriage and one from Dustin’s.

“And I have two dogs — I gotta throw that in there, too,” she laughs. She’s a stay-at-home mom, and Dustin is an oil field technician. They also have a fishing guide business — she says she and her family go fishing every day.

Six weeks: Picking out baby names

Jaci and Dustin were using birth control but took an “if it happens, it happens” attitude towards pregnancy, she says.

Then, in mid-February, she started to feel really sick — nauseous and dizzy and weak. The first few pregnancy tests came back negative, but after several trips to the hospital, a blood test confirmed it: She was pregnant.

“We got excited — picked out baby names, bought baby stuff,” she says.

8 Weeks: ‘You could bleed out’

Jaci Statton was in her kitchen, weeks later on Feb. 28, when she felt like she was going to faint. “I just looked down and there is blood everywhere,” she says. “My husband grabbed the kids, grabbed me, went to the emergency room.”

The hospital staff did her blood work several times and told her the results were confusing. They said she was probably having a miscarriage, and that she should…