Clinics cannot use federal family planning money to pay for abortions, but they must offer information about abortion at the patient’s request, under the federal regulation at issue.
Okay, so women who ask about abortion must be given information about it. I assume, in Oklahoma, that information is “get out of state.”
Oklahoma argues that it can’t comply with a requirement to provide abortion counseling and referrals because the state’s abortion ban makes it a crime for “any person to advise or procure an abortion for any woman.”
Seems like there’s a super simple solution to this problem.
The administration said it offered an accommodation that would allow referrals to the national hotline, but the state rejected that as insufficient.
I assume that “rejected that as insufficient” means “gave the feds the bird”?
Oklahoma says it distributes the money to around 70 city and county health departments for family planning, infertility help and services for adolescents. For rural communities especially, the government-run health facilities can be “the only access points for critical preventative services for tens or even hundreds of miles,” Oklahoma said in its Supreme Court filing.
Again, seems like a super simple way to fix this, assuming, you know, that !OK actually wants to help its citizens, and isn’t just granstanding for political points or something.