Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed an executive order to block state funding to abortion organizations

The Republican governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, signed an executive order Thursday to prevent the abortion organization Planned Parenthood from being able to receive hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on an annual basis. The order in question formally instructs the state's Medicaid program not to distribute funds to those groups that promote abortion or are simply affiliated with any type of abortion provider in the country.

"We don’t want to give to these organizations that are promoting values that are anti-family and anti-what Oklahoma values are. 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," stated the governor, who added that health money should go to both doctors and hospitals rather than to groups like Planned Parenthood, which he called "political organizations."

The order expressly instructs any and all state agencies to cut off funding to those organizations that promote abortion, whether through state-administered federal funds, contracts, grants or any other means. Also, the order directs the Oklahoma Health Care Authority—which oversees the Medicaid program—to develop criteria to exclude those entities that promote abortion from being accredited by the SoonerCare health coverage program.

"If you’re a Medicaid patient, if you’re someone who needs care, those dollars are still going to be spent in the state. 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. 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 detailed.