More than Abortion: Exploring Women's Reproductive Healthcare Experiences in the Oklahoma Landscape

While abortion is a vital reproductive right, its absence is not the only threat to bodily autonomy. This thesis utilizes a reproductive justice lens to showcase how religion and politics have contributed to centering a ‘choice’ binary that limits a more nuanced understanding of reproductive freedom. This has led to the dominance of the abortion narrative, which overshadows discussions on other forms of reproductive healthcare. Religion and politics have also cultivated a pro-birth – rather than pro-life – approach to women’s reproductive health. This is particularly true in Oklahoma, where no previous research has been conducted on women’s broader reproductive healthcare experiences – consequently, this research turns to women and amplifies their voices to better understand the current state of reproductive healthcare. Participant survey responses were analyzed in the areas of contraception, abortion, prenatal care, and postnatal care. A t-test shows that there is not a statistically significant difference in care quality between birth and non-birth categories. However, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test results do reveal that prenatal care in Oklahoma is rated much more highly than other forms of reproductive healthcare, and with much less variation than ratings in other categories. Additional findings reveal that more pain management is needed during intrauterine device (IUD) insertion, that finances are a major barrier to all forms of reproductive healthcare, and that sterilization is much more difficult to obtain than any other form of contraception. The study concludes that the experiences of respondents are reflective of a pro-birth approach to reproduction and motherhood. Findings from this research broaden existing scholarship on reproductive health and justice by contributing new knowledge that is relevant to women inside and outside of Oklahoma. The study recommends that additional research should be conducted to improve women’s reproductive healthcare in Oklahoma and beyond, particularly in a post-Roe world.