Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt moved this week to stop abortion giant Planned Parenthood from receiving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars every year.
Stitt signed an executive order on Thursday directing the state Medicaid program to not distribute funds to groups that promote abortion or are affiliated with abortion providers. Planned Parenthood of the Great Plains currently receives around $550,000 through SoonerCare every year, Stitt told The Daily Wire.
“We don’t want to give to these organizations that are promoting values that are anti-family and anti-what Oklahoma values are,” the governor said. “And so we’re going to deploy our funds to the hospitals, the doctors, that are actually taking care of families and mothers here in the state of Oklahoma.”
The executive order cited South Carolina’s recent victory at the Supreme Court in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, which cleared the way for other states to yank Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood.
Stitt told The Daily Wire that he believed the healthcare money should be going toward doctors and hospitals, not “political organizations” like Planned Parenthood.
While abortion is officially banned in Oklahoma, Planned Parenthood of the Great Plains still operates multiple facilities throughout the state. On its website for Oklahoma, it says that it offers “gender affirming care” and advertises that it still does surgical and chemical abortions in nearby Kansas.
“If you’re a Medicaid patient, if you’re someone who needs care, those dollars are still going to be spent in the state,” Stitt said. “We’re going to take care of women, children, families, in the State of Oklahoma, and we’re not going to do it through a political organization like Planned Parenthood.”
The order directs all state agencies to cut funding through grants, contracts, state-administered federal funds, or any other way organizations that promote abortion receive taxpayer dollars. It also directs the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which oversees the Medicaid program, to devise standards to exclude entities that promote abortion from being credentialed by SoonerCare. The guidance will stipulate that participants must be in line with the state’s public policy, including the protection of unborn life.
“We want to make sure that these providers are following the laws and the will of the legislature, which is therefore the will of the people in the state of Oklahoma,” Stitt said.
Congress recently passed legislation cutting off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, but a federal judge has put that law on hold for the moment.