New Oklahoma childbirth program routes $2M to pregnancy centers

(Pregnancy Help News) On Friday, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed a budget bill into law which includes a $2 million appropriation for life-affirming pregnancy centers.

The Choosing Childbirth Program, which was established by a 2017 law signed by then-governor Mary Fallin, will provide funds for services such as ultrasounds, medical exams, counseling, parenting classes, maternity care, and more.

“The bill will provide much-needed funds to pro-life pregnancy resource centers which help vulnerable women during their pregnancies and after their babies are born,” said Tony Lauinger, state chairman for Oklahomans for Life.

To be eligible for a service grant under the Choosing Childbirth Act, an applicant must be:

1. Be registered with the Oklahoma Secretary of State as a not for-profit corporation located in Oklahoma;

2. Have the grant amount approved by a grant-supervising entity;

3. Provide each pregnant woman counseled with accurate information on the developmental characteristics of unborn children, including offering the printed information described in Section 1-738.3 of Title 63 of the Oklahoma Statutes;

4. Assure that the grant’s sole purposes are to assist and encourage women to carry their children to term and to maximize their potentials thereafter; and

5. Assure that none of the funds provided pursuant to the Choosing Childbirth Act, nor any other funds or services provided by the organization, are used to encourage or counsel a woman to have an abortion not necessary to prevent her death, to provide her such an abortion or to refer her for such an abortion.

READ: Oklahoma governor signs bill granting foster families $5K tax exemption

Lauinger pointed to a number of other pro-life bills passed by the Oklahoma legislature this session and signed into law by Gov. Stitt.

One of them, SB 614, requires that an abortion patient be given information about the possibility of reversing an in-progress chemical abortion. Developed by physicians George Delgado and Matthew Harrison in 2007, abortion pill reversal empowers a mother to reverse the effects of a chemical abortion, saving her unborn child’s life. Since the Abortion Pill Rescue Network was founded in 2012, the reversal protocol has saved the lives of 750 children.

Editor’s Note: This article was published at Pregnancy Help News and is reprinted here with permission.

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