Oklahoma Governor Bans State-Funded Travel To California Over Abortion
JakeThomas
In a tit-for-tat move against California, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) signed an executive order on Thursday banning all non-essential state-funded travel to the Golden State over its pro-choice abortion laws.
According to The Oklahoman, San Francisco made a similar move last year when it banned city-funded travel to 22 states — including Oklahoma — over their “restrictive abortion laws.”
California also banned state travel to Oklahoma in 2018 over a policy it considered discriminatory to LGBT people, the publication reported, which allows “private adoption and foster agencies to deny placing children with same-sex couples on religious or moral grounds.”
“California and its elected officials over the past few years have banned travel to the State of Oklahoma in an effort to politically threaten and intimidate Oklahomans for their personal values," Stitt said in a statement this week. "Enough is enough."
House Minority Leader Emily Virgin, D-Norman, and Rep. Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City, said Stitt’s executive order is merely a ploy aimed at distracting Oklahomans from the “state's poor education outcomes, a health care plan he's months behind on rolling out and his fight with the Oklahoma's Native American tribes over the state-tribal gaming compacts, they said in a joint statement.”
Stitt said the timing of the executive order was intended to coincide with the National March for Life rally, held every year in Washington, D.C.
