State Facts About Abortion: Oklahoma
National Background and Context
Each year, a broad cross section of people in the United States obtain abortions. In 2017, 862,320 abortions were provided in clinical settings in the United States.
The U.S. Supreme Court recognized the constitutional right to abortion in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and has reaffirmed that right in subsequent decisions.
However, since 2010, the U.S. abortion landscape has grown increasingly restrictive as more states adopt laws hostile to abortion rights. Between January 1, 2011 and July 1, 2019, states enacted 483 new abortion restrictions, and these account for nearly 40% of all abortion restrictions enacted by states in the decades since Roe v. Wade. Some of the most common state-level abortion restrictions are parental notification or consent requirements for minors, limitations on public funding, mandated counseling designed to dissuade individuals from obtaining an abortion, mandated waiting periods before an abortion, and unnecessary and overly burdensome regulations on abortion facilities.
Abortion Incidence
•Approximately 862,320 abortions occurred in the United States in 2017. The resulting abortion rate of 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age (15–44) represents an 8% decrease from the 2014 rate of 14.6.[1]
•In 2017, 4,780 abortions were provided in Oklahoma, though not all abortions that occurred in Oklahoma were provided to state residents: Some patients may have traveled from other states, and some Oklahoma residents may have traveled to another state for an abortion. There was a a 11% decline in the abortion rate in Oklahoma between 2014 and 2017, from 7.0 to 6.2 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age. Abortions in Oklahoma represent 0.6% of all abortions in the United States.[1]
Where Patients Obtain Abortions
•In 2017, there were 1,587 facilities providing abortion in the United States, representing a 5% decrease from the 1,671 facilities in 2014. Sixteen percent of facilities in 2017 were abortion clinics (i.e., clinics where more than half of all patient visits were for abortion), 35% were nonspecialized clinics, 33% were hospitals and 16% were private physicians' offices. Sixty percent of all abortions were provided at abortion clinics, 35% at nonspecialized clinics, 3% at hospitals and 1% at physicians' offices.[1]
•There were 6 facilities providing abortion in Oklahoma in 2017, and 4 of those were clinics. These numbers represent a 33% increase in clinics from 2014, when there were five abortion-providing facilities overall, of which three were clinics.[1]
•In 2017, 89% of U.S. counties had no clinics providing abortions. Some 38% of reproductive-age women lived in those counties and would have had to travel elsewhere to obtain an abortion.[1] Of patients who had an abortion in 2014, one-third had to travel more than 25 miles one way to reach a facility.[2]
•In 2017, some 96% of Oklahoma counties had no clinics that provided abortions, and 53% of Oklahoma women lived in those counties.[1]
Restrictions on Abortion
In Oklahoma, the following restrictions on abortion were in effect as of June 28, 2022:
- Abortion would be banned if Roe v. Wade were overturned.
- Abortion is banned, except in cases of life endangerment, rape or incest.
References
1. Jones RK, Witwer E and Jerman J, Abortion Incidence and Service Availability in the United States, 2017, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2019.
2. Fuentes L and Jerman J, Distance traveled to obtain clinical abortion care in the United States and reasons for clinic choice, Journal of Women’s Health, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2018.7496.