Don Keenan worked at the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission as a disabled veterans employment and senior interviewer from 1985 to 1996, and is also the former head of the Oklahoma Public Employees Association. Keenan filed the lawsuit in Oklahoma County District Court on Monday. 

As a state retiree, Keenan claims in the lawsuit he is opposed to “his retirement benefits being depleted because the State of Oklahoma believes that making political statements with retiree dollars is more important than taking care of retirees themselves.” 

The lawsuit claims the state’s Energy Discrimination Elimination Act, enacted in 2022, violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as well as provisions in the state constitution that require state pension systems operate exclusively for the benefit of their beneficiaries.

The Oklahoma Public Employees Association announced Monday it was working with the Keep Oklahoma’s Promises Coalition — an arm of the National Public Pension Coalition — and the Oklahoma Retired Educators Association to support the lawsuit.

Under the Oklahoma Energy Discrimination Elimination Act, State Treasurer Todd Russ is tasked with determining whether financial institutions are boycotting the fossil fuel industry and putting violators on a blacklist that prohibits business with public retirement funds.

“We will not allow Todd Russ to play politics with state employees and retirees’ money,” said Tony DeSha, OPEA executive director. “The pension system is not taxpayer money, it is compensation earned by active employees who currently pay into the system and the pensioners who contributed to the same system for decades. The decision to pursue legal action against Todd Russ was not taken lightly, but we feel it is necessary to strengthen the fiduciary responsibility of our pension systems.”

Russ said in a statement released through a spokesperson that he was following the law.

“The spirit and intention of the law is to protect Oklahomans and the economic base of the state,” Russ said. “I will be happy to work with the Legislature in the future.”

Most of the governing boards of Oklahoma’s public employee pension systems — the Oklahoma Public Employee Retirement System, the Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System, the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Retirement System, the Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System, and the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System — have expressed concern that divesting from some of its largest retirement fund management firms would end up costing retirees millions of dollars. Meanwhile, other government entities barred from doing business with companies on the blacklist, have said the law is costing them money as well.

Though the state’s Energy Discrimination Elimination Act deals mostly with public pension funds, one section of the law prohibits any government entity from entering into contracts with blacklisted firms, but provides exceptions if doing so would violate an agency’s financial or legal obligations or if a company provides exclusive services.

Earlier this year, Russ said it was likely some exemptions would be allowed for pension and retirement boards over concerns about the cost. 

However, House Speaker Charles McCall replaced two Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System board members after the board voted in August to keep contracts with blacklisted financial firms Blackrock and State Street.

The vote came after the board sought out new investment firms and found a move would cost retirees at least $10 million.

Blackrock and State Street manage roughly a combined 60% of assets for the state’s largest retirement system. Wells Fargo; JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Bank of America and Climate First Bank are also on Russ’s blacklist.

Russ has asked the pension system to issue new requests for proposals, saying the previous attempt was biased and rushed, but the board has thus far refused to budge.

In other states, similar blacklists have been blamed for higher government borrowing costs, and some public pension systems have warned that their retirees could lose tens of millions of dollars each year.

The post A state retiree seeks to overturn Oklahoma’s ‘woke’ investment ban appeared first on The Frontier.

Meanwhile, the federal government has sent the health department’s share of family planning funding to a Missouri nonprofit to coordinate those services independent from county health departments. 

The State Department of Health is using $4.5 million in state money to continue family planning services through its network of county health departments after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suspended the agency’s Title X grant funding in May. Minors can still access confidential sexually transmitted infection and HIV testing at state clinics, but birth control and pregnancy testing aren’t available without permission from a parent. 

Oklahoma had the fourth-highest teen birth rate in the nation in 2021, according to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Tulsa youth sexual health nonprofit Amplify has worked to prevent teen pregnancy over the last decade, but its staff worries that county health departments’ loss of federal family planning funding could limit that work. Some clinics that students and health educators have relied on for years have lost the ability to provide confidential services for minors, which could cause confusion for those trying to access resources, said Jenny Briggs, a director at Amplify.

“We know that clinic access, education, conversations with trusted adults that young people love are the biggest contributing factors to young people being able to make healthy choices and plan for their future,” Briggs said. “When we take away one of those key components, I would expect that there would be problems.” 

With $3.3 million in new federal funding, the nonprofit Missouri Family Health Council is working on a plan to administer confidential services for minors and other Title X resources in Oklahoma through a new network. The organization said it plans to apply to manage Oklahoma’s federal funding again next fiscal year too.

Clinics that participate in the federal Title X program provide confidential and low-cost family planning resources like contraceptives, counseling and testing for pregnancy for all ages, including minors. They can’t provide abortions directly, but they are required to offer information and counseling on all options, including abortion, if a pregnant patient requests it. Those guidelines haven’t been changed by the U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, even in states with abortion bans. 

But the State Department of Health says Oklahoma law stops it from providing patients with information on abortion. Oklahoma enacted a trigger law last year that put a near-total abortion ban from 1910 back into effect immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Anyone who advises a woman on how to obtain an abortion can be found guilty of a felony and face a prison sentence of between two and five years.

Erica Rankin-Riley, a spokeswoman for the State Department of Health said the agency supports the work of the Missouri Family Health Council, but disagrees with the federal government’s suspension of funding over its interpretation of state law. The agency is appealing the decision. 

The State Department of Health believes it’s important to continue to provide family planning services with state funding because of its network of county health departments and long history with the Title X program, Rankin-Riley said. But the department is barred from continuing some confidential services by a state law that prevents minors from receiving physical examinations or prescription drugs without parental consent, she said. 

A handful of federal court cases have established that even in states with laws that require parental consent for minors to get contraceptives, federal rules that allow minors to receive confidential services through the Title X program take precedence. But according to Oklahoma law, outside the program, minors can only consent to medical care in specific situations, like if they’re married, emancipated from their parents, or are or have been pregnant. 

A bill that stalled in the House last year would have stopped clinics, including county health departments, from prescribing contraceptives or providing family planning counseling to minors without parental permission. In his presentation, Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, said he was motivated to author the bill after hearing about students at Langston Hughes Academy in Tulsa who were transported to a Title X-funded clinic, where one received a removable birth control implant without parental consent. 

One of Amplify’s priorities is making sure young adults, school staff and families know how to access the family planning resources they need, now that state health department clinics have more limited services. 

Amplify works closely with Tulsa medical provider Community Health Connection, which has received federal Title X funding separately from the State Department of Health since 2016. This year, it received $216,000 in additional funding to expand family planning and continue confidential services for minors.  

The organization already has about 20,000 active patients and is anticipating several thousand more who could start receiving services in the coming months, said Jim McCarthy, Community Health Connection CEO. The health center’s three medical providers will spend a larger part of their time on offering family planning services to meet increased demand from county health clinics, he said.

Title X providers give patients the information they need to make decisions on their pregnancies, but they never advise one option over others, said Michelle Trupiano, executive director of Missouri Family Health Council. Clinics can provide patients with information on abortion providers, including names, addresses and phone numbers, and they can refer them out of state if necessary, according to program guidance. But they can’t take extra steps like providing transportation or making an appointment for a patient. 

Oklahoma’s congressional delegation wrote a letter in June calling for the Department of Health and Human Services to return Title X funding to the state and accusing federal officials of prioritizing abortion over health care. Several state delegates also introduced legislation banning the federal government from requiring Title X funding recipients to provide information on abortion.

“Oklahoma values every child and has the legal right to stand up for our children after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade,” Lankford said in an emailed statement. “The Biden administration remains obsessed with increasing the number of abortions in America and finding ways to force taxpayers to pay for abortion or punish individuals who do not support their pro-abortion stance.” 

Then-Attorney General John O’Connor issued guidance last year encouraging law enforcement to protect free speech when enforcing Oklahoma’s abortion ban. He wrote that “mere advocacy” is protected by law, but law enforcement could consider pursuing cases where a person advised or encouraged a woman to get an abortion, especially if they took “tangible action” to help access the procedure. Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who took office in January, is working on updated guidance, but it’s unclear when it will be released, an agency spokesman said.

There’s a political climate in Oklahoma of not wanting the federal government to interfere with state politics, said Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, a member of the Senate Health and Human Services committee. Despite high rates of infant and maternal mortality, she said she’s not optimistic that state leaders will adopt policies that will allow the State Department of Health to reclaim federal funding for next fiscal year. 

“I would say it’s disappointing more than anything, because again, we have plenty of data, an overwhelming amount of data that is showing that what we’re doing is trending in the wrong direction,” Hicks said. “And yet, we’re continuing to do those very same things year over year and double down on what I consider failed policy.” 

The post Without federal funding, Oklahoma minors lost access to confidential birth control and other family planning services at county clinics appeared first on The Frontier.

The report, published last week, found barriers like transportation, a lack of providers in rural areas and long waitlists make it difficult for biological parents to meet court requirements in a timely way. Child welfare case workers and foster families are underpaid and overworked, the report also found. These factors contribute to children being bounced from one caseworker or foster family to another. 

Oklahoma has spent most of the past decade attempting to reforming its troubled foster care system as part of the settlement of a class-action lawsuit. The state has made sustained progress in nearly every area, including increased oversight of providers and discontinued use of shelters to house the youngest kids in the state, according to recent reports from outside child welfare monitors.

But the state is still struggling to help kids get out of state custody quickly. Additional funding and more staff could help, but those needs will compete against a heavy push from some Republican lawmakers for tax cuts, education funding and economic development during the next legislative session. 

“This won’t be cheap,” said Joe Dorman, director of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy. “But the return on the investment will be tremendous.” 

Gov. Kevin Stitt formed the Child Welfare Task Force in January to study how to reduce the time kids spend in state custody and what supports families need to avoid state-sanctioned removal from parents. 

Programs that provide transportation, put social workers in schools and train parent mentors need to be expanded, the report found. Lawmakers partially funded a Family Representation and Advocacy Program this year, but roughly another $15 million is needed to take the program statewide.

Many foster families said the state doesn’t give them sufficient resources. Stress from case delays leads many to consider quitting, the report found. The report recommended the state help foster parents take respite breaks, boost funding for childcare and mental health professionals, increase stipends for case workers and foster families and expand Medicaid eligibility to families involved in the child welfare system.

Access to services that disrupt poverty and treat substance use are also key to keeping families out of the child welfare system, the report found. Statewide, nearly 70% of child welfare removals included substance abuse as a contributing factor.

The state hasn’t had a wait list for residential substance use treatment for five years, said Bonnie Campo, director of communications for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Use Services. But mothers may be hesitant to reach out for services if they fear they’ll lose custody of their kids, face criminal charges or judgment from health care providers. 

Some women have been charged with felony child neglect in recent years even if their child was born healthy or child welfare workers didn’t find evidence of abuse or neglect, The Frontier previously reported.  

“We cannot adequately care for patients who are afraid to seek care or be truthful with their physicians,” Angela Hawkins, a local doctor and chair of the Oklahoma Section of American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told lawmakers during an interim study last month.

State lawmakers will consider the task force recommendations during the 2024 legislative session. Efforts to expand social services have been mixed in recent years. The Department of Human Services has received millions to help end the state’s waiting list for disability services,  and several capital projects are in the works to expand access to mental health care. But many state officials say that money is just helping Oklahoma catch up after years of budget cuts.

Rep. Mark Lawson, R-Sapulpa, served on the task force and said that although Stitt created the task force, the governor has also recently called for tax cuts and smaller government. But the recommendations are needed, Lawson said, even if it means increasing appropriations. 

“Being in the fiscal position that we’re in with the surplus that we have … This is the best investment we can make,” Lawson said. 

Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, is still reviewing the report, his office said, but is “committed and willing to do what is necessary to improve essential services to children in Oklahoma.” 

The Department of Human Services has requested a $30 million budget increase for next year to pay for higher child care reimbursement rates. Lawmakers get the final say on what funding the department will receive for worker raises or program expenses.

“Our children and families are our future, and it is the responsibility of every Oklahoman to do what is necessary to see our community thrive and flourish,” the report said.

The post Oklahoma lacks accessible services for families in the child welfare system, task force finds appeared first on The Frontier.

Canoo’s latest deal for up to $7.5 million in cash from the Governor’s Quick Action Closing Fund omits an earlier requirement for the company to purchase a factory in Oklahoma City to collect any of the incentive money. The company had been facing a deadline later this month to purchase the facility or lose out on the incentives. 

The Quick Action money is part of more than $113 million in incentives Canoo is eligible to collect through state tax breaks, economic development incentives and a Cherokee Nation job training program. 

Oklahoma Department of Commerce spokeswoman Becky Samples said Oklahoma’s latest incentive package is only the first round of funding. Once Canoo meets all of the benchmarks in its most recent agreements, future incentives are not out of the question, Samples said.

Canoo has yet to collect any state money, because all of the deals have been contingent on the company hitting hiring and development goals that haven’t been met. 

In 2021, Canoo announced that Oklahoma had pledged incentives valued at $300 million to help build a vehicle production facility at the Mid-America Industrial Park in Pryor and hire 1,500 workers. The state-run industrial park offered incentives including land and infrastructure for the factory. Canoo also said it would develop a tech hub in Tulsa that would create 700 new jobs in the fields of software development, research, customer support and financing. 

In early 2022, Canoo signed deals to receive up to $15 million in cash from the Quick Action Closing fund to help create jobs in Pryor and Tulsa. Canoo’s deal was the largest the state had ever pledged since the Quick Action program was created in 2011.

But Canoo missed a deadline to start construction on the Pryor factory by January 2023, losing out on the opportunity to collect up to $10 million of the Quick Action money. While plans for a Canoo battery factory in Pryor are still moving forward, the larger vehicle manufacturing plant is on hold for now, said David Stewart, chief administrative officer for the Mid-America Industrial Park

Stewart said that the industrial park is still a long-term partner with Canoo, and the 400-acre plot of land that it offered the company during the first incentive package is still available, should it decide to go forward with a vehicle production factory there.

“Basically, the site is still there, we haven’t deeded it or transferred it to anyone,” Stewart said. “And we’re there when Canoo is ready to be supportive and deal with it at that time.”

Canoo’s contract for the other $5 million chunk of Quick Action money to create jobs at the Tulsa tech hub has also been canceled. Chris Moore, vice president of Canoo, said the Tech Hub still remains part of Canoo’s future plans.

In late 2022, Canoo’s shifted its plans to buy an existing factory site owned by the company Terex in Oklahoma City and launch manufacturing there. 

The state made two new Quick Action agreements with Canoo in February, promising a combined $7.5 million to create 1,200 new jobs at the Pryor battery plant and the Oklahoma City factory. There was a catch, however — Canoo would be required to close on the purchase of the Terex facility by Aug. 20.

The Terex property was later purchased by AFV Partners, a separate company owned by Canoo CEO Tony Aquila and leased to Canoo under a 10-year agreement. The lease arrangement helped ease financial strain on the company, Aquila told investors. 

Canoo has yet to turn a profit and has also faced cash shortage as it tries to ramp up production. 

The new Quick Action Closing Fund agreement with Canoo, which overrides the previous ones, offers up to $7.5 million in exchange for creating 1,362 new jobs with an average wage of $60,512 and a capital investment of $321.6 million by Canoo over a period of 10 years. The agreement would provide Canoo with $1 million if it creates 100 jobs this year.

Canoo can also receive up to $40 million from the state’s Quality Jobs Program over a period of 10 years. The deal is subject to the company generating $2.5 million in new gross taxable payroll within three years on jobs that pay at least $40,472 a year and at least 340 full-time jobs with average salary of $60,512.

During Monday’s call with shareholders, Aquila told investors that the company was entering a “new era” after settling charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for $1.5 million on Aug. 4 in connection with misleading revenue revenue projections under two former executives. 

The settlement has helped put the company in a stronger financial position moving forward, Aquila said. 

“This has been a significant burden on the company’s time, resources, and the process has taken us 28 months and millions of dollars, which reduced our ability to access the capital markets into higher cost channels during this period because of perceived uncertainty,” Aquila said.

The company currently has $3 billion in orders booked, he said, 70% are from commercial customers. 

Oklahoma awarded Canoo a no-bid contract  in 2022 to purchase up to 1,000 of its electric vehicles over five years. The deal could be worth as much as $35 million to $50 million over the life of the deal, but it’s still unclear how many vehicles state agencies will actually buy. Canoo has yet to start full-scale production. 

Canoo could also be in line to collect millions more in local and federal incentives. 

The company is finalizing an agreement with Oklahoma City for a $1 million incentive from the city’s Strategic Investment Program to help Canoo create 550 jobs. 

The company’s battery production facility in Pryor also could be eligible for around $35 million in federal tax credits annually, said Jacob Whiton, researcher for Good Jobs First, a national policy resource center that promotes corporate and government accountability in economic development.

A breakdown of Canoo’s most-recent $113- million incentive package

• $40 million in Quality Jobs Program payroll incentive payments over 10 years
• $7.5 million from the Governor’s Quick Action Closing Fund
• $28 million from Oklahoma’s Investment/new Jobs tax credit
• $19.7 million from state sales and use tax exemptions on machinery and equipment
• $5.4 million from the state freeport tax exemption
• $7.9 million from sales and use tax exemption on energy used in manufacturing
• $1.9 million from the Oklahoma Training Incentive Program
• $1.7 million from the state’s automotive engineer tax credit
• $663,312 from the Cherokee Nation’s workforce development program 
• A to-be-determined amount from the state’s sales and use tax exemption for goods consumed during manufacturing

The post Canoo could collect up to $110 million in state incentives over the next decade, but three previous Oklahoma deals fell through appeared first on The Frontier.

The Stay in School program provided tuition assistance of up to $6,500 for private school students whose families were financially affected by the pandemic.

An audit released Tuesday also confirmed flaws in how the state handled the Bridge the Gap Digital Wallet pandemic relief program. A joint investigation by The Frontier and Oklahoma Watch last year revealed how families spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bridge the Gap money on video game consoles, Christmas trees and grills.

Both programs were funded through the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, a pot of flexible federal money intended to give governors the power to fund educational programs during the pandemic. 

Gov. Kevin Stitt’s office was awarded $39 million through the federal program. 

Stitt’s spokeswoman, Kate Vesper, issued a statement after the audit was released, blaming the company ClassWallet, which ran the digital platform that dispensed Bridge the Gap funds.

“During the COVID pandemic, Governor Stitt had a duty to get federal relief funds to students and families in Oklahoma as quickly as possible and he responsibly accomplished just that,” Vesper said. “The state maintains its position that a negligent out-of-state vendor should be held accountable to recover the federal taxpayer dollars in question, and the auditor’s report further supports this is what ought to happen.”

But the state auditor placed blame for most of the question costs on the “State of Oklahoma’s failure to administer the program,” and not outside vendors.

Before he was elected State Superintendent last year, Ryan Walters oversaw the implementation of the pandemic programs funded with federal relief money while he was executive director of the pro-school reform nonprofit Every Kid Counts Oklahoma and after Stitt appointed him Secretary of Education in September 2020. State auditors were unable to find any contract authorizing Every Kid Counts Oklahoma to oversee the programs. 

E-mail records obtained by Oklahoma Watch and The Frontier show Walters issued a “blanket approval” for purchases of all vendor items available on the ClassWallet platform, after the company gave him a chance to restrict which items could be purchased.

Justin Holcomb, a spokesman for Walters, declined to answer The Frontier’s questions about how relief funds were managed and also blamed private contractors for the problems. 

Read more: Stitt gave families $8 Million for school supplies in the pandemic; They bought Christmas trees, gaming consoles and hundreds of TVs

State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd’s audit found $1.8 million in questioned costs for the Bridge the Gap Program and $6.5 million for the Stay in School program. The report found programs were overseen by individuals and private organizations who were unqualified, didn’t have contracts with the state authorizing them to perform the work and were granted access to confidential student records. 

The audit found that almost 20% of purchases through the Bridge the Gap program were spent on non-educational items, against grant guidelines. 

According to Byrd’s report, administrators of the Stay in School program were involved in a “deliberate operation to give selected private schools and individuals preferential treatment by allowing early access for application submission prior to the date this program was offered to the general public.”

Jennifer Carter, a prominent school choice advocate and president of Libertas Consulting LLC  was named as an administrator for the Stay in School program administrator without entering into a contract with the state, the audit found. 

Carter is a senior advisor for former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy Devos’s education privatization organization Federation for Children, served as chief of staff and campaign manager for former State Superintendent Janet Barresi and has been involved in multiple school-choice efforts in Oklahoma. ClassWallet also listed Carter as a district administrator. 

With Carter’s direction, five, unnamed private schools were given preferential treatment for the Stay in School program, the audit found. 

Stay in School program administrators allowed the five schools to hold an open house to accept applications before the forms were made available to the general public.

Students from the preferred schools were awarded the maximum $6,500 per-student and received enrollment exceptions for children who had not previously attended, the audit found. 

After funds ran dry, 657 students of low-income families who qualified for the Stay in School program did not get the financial assistance.  More than $5.3 million went to families who said they did not have a pandemic-related financial hardship. The audit also found private schools received $1.8 million in excess of families’ tuition responsibilities. 

In a statement to The Frontier, Carter said the American Federation for Children did not bill the state for its work on the program.

“As the nation’s leading voice for education freedom, AFC was happy to offer advice to the state around the implementation of the Governor’s Stay in School Fund GEER program,” Carter said. “The Stay in School Fund, which was aimed at minimizing students’ education disruption during COVID, served almost 1900 kids with tuition assistance. We gladly provided this service at no expense to taxpayers.

In nearly 87% of cases reviewed by the audit, auditors were unable to confirm that the private schools were charging the state what parents would have been charged for tuition. An unnamed program administrator for the Stay in School program received some inquiries from private schools asking if they could bill for the program’s maximum per-student amount of $6,500, even if it was more than the tuition parents owed. 

“The State of Oklahoma dropped the ball on compliance and oversight,” Byrd said in a statement Tuesday accompanying the audit.

“This was a tangled web of government agencies, non-profit organizations, and non-government individuals representing special interest groups managing millions of tax dollars with no contracts and no written agreements,” Byrd said. “Sadly, millions of tax dollars were misspent because certain individuals who were put in charge of managing these programs seemingly ignored federal grant guidelines.”

The audit also found that Oklahoma neglected to monitor and file the proper federal compliance reports for the federal relief money. The state hired a consulting firm only after the federal government issued a warning in June 2021 about Oklahoma’s lack of monitoring and reporting. The state paid the consulting firm $325,000, but the contractor has not fulfilled its duties to monitor and report on the educational relief money, the audit found. 

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond on Tuesday described the state auditor’s report as “deeply troubling.” 

“A number of concerning items from the audit will require further investigation,” Drummond said. “I refuse to tolerate what amounts to a pervasive culture of waste, mismanagement and apparent fraud.”

The post Audit finds special interest groups gave Oklahoma private schools first-dibs on federal relief money while rejecting poor kids appeared first on The Frontier.

Claim: A bill at the Oklahoma Legislature this past session would have enshrined protections in state law for contraceptives that induce abortion. 
Source: The anti-abortion group Free the States has made this claim on its website and on YouTube about Senate Bill 368. Some versions of the bill, which eventually failed, would have clarified that many forms of contraceptives are not abortion and are still legal in Oklahoma. Free the States claimed in a post on its website dated April 10 that “self-administered hormonal contraceptives that are approved by the FDA”…. “often induce abortions.”  
Fact check: Mostly false

SB 368 would have clarified that birth control, morning-after pills and long-acting reversible contraceptives, like IUDs, are still legal under state law.

Free the States founder T. Russell Hunter said in an email to The Frontier that his organization believes that pregnancy begins when sperm meets egg and that some forms of contraceptives are abortion because they work after fertilization. But federal regulation and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists define the start of pregnancy as when a fertilized egg later implants into the lining of a woman’s uterus.

Birth control pills and implants work by preventing a woman’s ovaries from releasing an egg each month and IUDs work by preventing an egg from being fertilized, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

The FDA released guidance in December stating that the morning-after pill Plan B prevents pregnancy by stopping or delaying the release of an egg. It doesn’t affect implantation and won’t affect an existing pregnancy, so the agency says it’s not abortion. 

-Ari Fife

Claim: Abortion is still legal in Oklahoma because current laws don’t criminalize women for seeking self-induced medication abortions. 
Source: Activists from the local anti-abortion groups Abolitionists Rising and Oklahomans United For Life have repeatedly made this claim on social media. 

“The abortion pill is the new state-sanctioned coat hanger,” activist John Michener said in a video posted on YouTube on March 1.
Fact check: Mixed

State officials have said Oklahoma statutes don’t criminalize women who seek abortions, but conflicting laws have caused some confusion.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down two state abortion bans in May, but there’s still a statute on the books dating from 1910 that outlaws the procedure. That statute criminalizes abortion providers, making it a felony for anyone to help a woman terminate a pregnancy except to save the life of the mother. Oklahoma enacted another law in 2022 that strengthened criminal penalties for medical providers. Women who seek abortions are exempt from criminal prosecution under that law.  

But another state law from 1978 prohibits self-induced abortions. A group of state lawmakers in October asked the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office to weigh in on whether women who self-induce abortions could be prosecuted for homicide under this law. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is expected to issue an opinion soon. 

-Brianna Bailey

Claim: The federal government is cutting health care funding for Oklahoma because the state will not promote an abortion hotline. 
Source: U.S. Sen. James Lankford said “…It is now past time for the Biden Administration to explain why they are cutting healthcare funding for women in my state because Oklahoma will not promote an abortion hotline,” in a tweet on June 12.
Fact check: Mostly true

The federal government suspended a $4.5-million grant to the Oklahoma State Department of Health for family planning services in late May. 

Federal rules require grant recipients to provide information about abortion, along with  counseling on prenatal and infant care and adoption. But Oklahoma law prohibits clinics from advising women on abortion, according to the state Health Department. 

Patients can opt out of receiving abortion information, which may include an abortion provider’s phone number or address, according to a federal memo. 

The Health Department said in a statement that it has worked for months with the federal government to “find an acceptable resolution that does not force OSDH to directly or indirectly violate state law.” 

The grant suspension is currently under a 30-day review, and state funding is being used to replace federal dollars, so no services have been discontinued. 

-Kayla Branch 

Claim: Oklahoma’s near-total ban on abortion is causing medical professionals to leave the state.
Source: “Oklahoma is one of 14 states w total abortion bans and one of 12 states w no exceptions for rape or incest,” Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, said on Twitter June 15. “As a result, we are losing medical professionals in droves, and everyone suffers when we don’t have adequate resources for healthcare.” 
Fact check: Mixed

It’s too soon to tell how Oklahoma’s abortion laws will affect the number of health care providers in the state, and data is limited. But states with near-total abortion bans, including Oklahoma, saw a 10.5% drop in applicants for obstetrics and gynecology residency positions between 2022 and 2023, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Nationally, OB-GYN residency applicants decreased by about 5% overall this year. A recent survey of 494 third- and fourth-year medical students applying for OB-GYN residencies and other specialties across 32 states found that 57.9% of students were unlikely or very unlikely to apply to programs in states with abortion restrictions. 

-Jillian Taylor

Rating system: 

True: A claim that is backed up by factual evidence
Mostly true: A claim that is mostly true but also contains some inaccurate details 
Mixed: A claim that contains a combination of accurate and inaccurate or unproven information 
True but misleading: A claim that is factually true but omits critical details or context 
Mostly false: A claim that is mostly false but also contains some accurate details 
False: A claim that has no basis in fact

The post We fact-checked claims about Oklahoma’s abortion ban and conflicting laws appeared first on The Frontier.

During the final days of the 2023 legislative session, the anti-abortion group Oklahomans For Life sent its members an early-morning email marked “URGENT.”  

Tony Lauinger, chairman of the group, urged support for Senate Bill 368, which would have made it easier for survivors of rape and incest to obtain legal abortions in Oklahoma. 

“Those thinking SB 368 is not pro-life ‘enough’ are thinking short-term rather than recognizing the reality of pro-abortion momentum since Roe V. Wade was overturned last June,” Lauinger wrote. He did not respond to requests for comment.

Voters in six other states have defeated abortion-ban proposals or have enshrined abortion access into state constitutions through statewide votes last year. An Amber Integrated poll conducted in August 2022 found that 62% of likely Oklahoma GOP runoff voters said they supported access to abortion in cases of rape, incest or medical emergencies. In his email, Lauinger also mentioned an internal poll where 71% of Oklahoma voters supported exceptions for rape and incest of a minor reported to law enforcement. 

Currently, state law bans all abortions except to save the life of the mother. 

Anti-abortion lawmakers say they are in a dilemma: Support legislation that could make it easier for some women to get abortions, or risk successful legal challenges and backlash from voters.

To reduce momentum behind a potential state question restoring abortion access in Oklahoma and avoid future legal challenges, some conservative lawmakers want to narrow the state’s abortion ban. Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, said efforts failed this year after Gov. Kevin Stitt wouldn’t commit to supporting Senate Bill 368, which Stitt’s office disputes. Several lawmakers also said they wouldn’t support any exceptions beyond saving the life of the mother, Daniels said.

“What happened was a difference of opinion among pro-life legislators,” said Daniels, who has written many of the state’s abortion laws and tried to run Senate Bill 368. “But short of those exceptions, the pro-life movement is losing those wars in other states. We didn’t want that to happen to us.”

Abortion rights advocates say even if lawmakers add exceptions to state law, local groups will continue to push for access to abortion. 

“We are clear in our position that Oklahomans need and deserve abortion access,” said Tamya Cox-Touré, director of the ACLU of Oklahoma. Cox-Touré said it’s surprising lawmakers think that adding exceptions for rape and incest of a minor reported to law enforcement would stop a potential state question. “We know that an overwhelming number of attacks and sexual assaults go unreported. These exceptions are unworkable.” 

States with rape and incest exceptions typically require a woman to prove that an assault occurred by filing a police report. But most sexual assaults nationwide go unreported, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

Requiring someone who has been sexually assaulted to report to law enforcement can be traumatizing and difficult, especially if they were abused by an intimate partner or family member, said Priya Desai, a board member with Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice

And despite the existing exception for saving the life of the mother, women have had to travel out of state to receive emergency health care because Oklahoma doctors said they didn’t think they had the legal coverage to perform the abortion procedure, according to The Oklahoman. 

“They think that these exemptions are going to pacify people, but in reality, the truth is that these exemptions don’t really help that many people,” Desai said.

In February, when Daniels first presented a version of the bill to clearly state exceptions in state law, she told other lawmakers that she didn’t expect rape and incest exceptions to be used frequently. Since last spring when Oklahoma’s most recent abortion bans were approved, no abortions have been reported to the State Department of Health, but it’s unclear how the new laws have affected reporting requirements.

Oklahoma lawmakers enacted several, sometimes conflicting, abortion bans last year in anticipation of Roe V. Wade being overturned. Only one of those bills contained exceptions for rape and incest. 

The Oklahoma Supreme Court overturned those bans in recent weeks after abortion rights groups sued and the court ruled that the Oklahoma constitution protects a woman’s right to have an abortion to save her own life. Now, the state’s abortion ban is only propped up by a 1910 law that bans abortions except to save the life of the mother. 

The state Supreme Court’s actions have made lawmakers feel more urgency to make state laws on abortion consistent and include some exceptions, said Sen. Jessica Garvin, R-Duncan. But some legislators have concerns about backlash from anti-abortion voters if they include exceptions throughout state abortion laws. 

“To take a stance on exclusions is difficult for some because maybe they are worried about the next election,” Garvin said. “Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who are not willing to publicly talk about their stance on abortion. But these are conversations that have to be had.” 

Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, told reporters this spring he would support clarifying exceptions to the abortion ban. By the end of the session, Treat said the idea was “controversial” and wouldn’t advance this year.

“Although it’s not something that I would be extremely excited about, I would know that it would protect our ability to protect unborn life to a much greater level if a state question were to come forward,” Treat said in March. 

Stitt said during his 2022 gubernatorial campaign that he would sign a bill that clearly defined exceptions for rape and incest. A representative for Stitt’s office said it was “absolutely not true” that he wouldn’t commit to supporting Senate Bill 368 this session.

“The governor wasn’t noncommittal, rather he hadn’t yet expressed one way or another before it was too late for the bill to advance,” spokeswoman Kate Vesper said. 

Republican lawmakers nationwide are considering exceptions to abortion bans as a way to ward off state questions. Legislatures in other states and in Oklahoma have looked to make the initiative petition process more difficult, as well.

In recent years, Oklahoma lawmakers have tried to pass bills that would increase the number of signatures needed to file an initiative petition, raise the percentage of voters that have to approve a state question and lengthen the time to challenge petitions. Since 2016, Oklahoma voters have approved sweeping criminal justice reforms, expanded Medicaid and legalized medical marijuana — all policy areas the Legislature drug its feet on.

As the state’s Republican majority tries to figure out what approach it will take to clarify laws in the future, local abortion rights groups are preparing to launch an education campaign with an eye on an eventual statewide vote on reproductive rights. 

Advocacy groups say a state question is one way to restore abortion access in the state. The groups could also bring additional lawsuits to the state Supreme Court in hopes of a ruling that people have the right to elective abortions in the state, something the court hasn’t done in past court cases. 

Local abortion rights organizations are also working with groups in other states that have had successful state questions. One initiative petition was filed in Oklahoma last year to restore abortion access, but it was quickly withdrawn.

“We know that when these measures are put to the people through strategic, comprehensive, community-led efforts, abortion wins,” Cox-Touré said. “We know that this is going to be a multi-million dollar effort, and we have to get it right.” 

Voters in other conservative states have pushed back against abortion bans in statewide votes, including a landslide victory in Kansas for abortion rights. Advocates say that gave them hope a state question on abortion access could eventually succeed in Oklahoma. 

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The state will spend $4.6 million to create the Family Representation and Advocacy Program, housed under the Administrative Office of the Courts, to pay and train attorneys to work with parents and kids, manage caseloads and provide support during court cases. The program will also coordinate with social workers and other staff to help families. 

“It’s very exciting,” said Rep. Mark Lawson, R-Sapulpa, who worked to get the bill approved.

Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services and advocacy groups for lawyers, parents and kids have spent years trying to minimize the time children spend in state custody. Parents who lose custody through the child welfare system have a right to an attorney, but the state doesn’t currently have the funding or systems in place to ensure families get well-trained lawyers in a timely manner.

Low pay, high caseloads and a lack of funding for support staff like investigators or expert witnesses make it difficult to find attorneys willing to take on these cases.

Preliminary data from a parent representation program in Tulsa County shows that parents who receive high-quality legal representation are more likely to be reunited with their kids, who spend less time in state custody. Lawmakers pointed to that early success to make a case for statewide funding.

The Administrative Office of the Courts will seek a nonprofit to manage the program through a central state office. 

Lawmakers initially asked for roughly $20 million to roll the program out statewide, but Lawson said the $4.6 million should be enough to set up the central office and begin hiring staff. 

Most counties have existing contracts with attorneys to provide parents and kids legal representation, said former Tulsa County Judge Doris Fransein. Those contracts are paid for with local dollars. District court systems, which have struggled to keep up with costs in recent years, will benefit from the new state program, Fransein said.

The number of counties that can be included in the program will depend on funding. The program will focus initially on counties that have a hard time finding attorneys or that pay the lowest rates. 

Lawmakers will decide how much, if any, additional funding to give the program during the next legislative session. 

“Someone will have to lobby heavily next session for more money,” Fransein said.

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Read the full story here.

Here are five takeaways from The Frontier’s in-depth reporting

1. Seven of the 13 the firms that landed on Oklahoma’s blacklist do not meet the law’s definition of “financial companies,” because they are not publicly-traded.

2. The Treasurer’s Office does not have a scoring system to consistently evaluate companies’ responses to its questionnaire. Much of how those responses were evaluated were through Oklahoma State Treasurer Todd Russ’s discretion. Russ said one of the main things he looked at when deciding whether to include companies on the blacklist was how financial firms voted at energy company shareholder meetings on behalf of their clients. 

3. The attorney for several of the state’s pension fund systems, as well as the directors of at least three retirement systems, says the State Treasurer’s office has been unresponsive to their questions and concerns about how to apply the law to their money managers and financial services companies. Some of their concerns include how non-public companies ended up on the list, the lack of any written criteria and appeals process. 

4. The State Treasurer’s office contracts with at least two blacklisted banks involved in large-scale purchasing and payment systems for the state. The treasurer’s office uses JPMorgan Chase for nearly all state financial disbursements, including almost all state payroll and retirement payments. Bank of America  is contracted to provide banking services for the state’s payment card system, which numerous state agencies use for most small purchases. The Energy Discrimination Elimination Act prohibits state agencies from contracting with blacklisted firms, with some caveats, but Russ did not say whether his office would end its relationship with either bank.

Oklahoma’s Energy Discrimination Elimination Act was not actually written by Oklahoma lawmakers, and is nearly a word-for-word copy of a law passed in 2021 by Texas and later introduced by the American Legislative Exchange Council.

The post Five things to know about Oklahoma’s ESG investing blacklist appeared first on The Frontier.

“We’re committed with the state to kind of take a long term view on this and obviously, there’s other programs in the state,” company CEO Tony Aquila told The Frontier.

Take a look at Canoo’s contracts with Oklahoma below.

Amended contract between the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and Canoo Inc. for an award from the Oklahoma Quick Action Closing Fund.

Original contract between the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and Canoo Inc. for an award from the Oklahoma Quick Action Closing Fund.

Closing fund offer for Canoo Inc.

Contract between the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and Canoo, Inc., for an award from the Oklahoma Quick Action Closing Fund.

The post Take a look at electric vehicle startup Canoo’s contracts with Oklahoma appeared first on The Frontier.