“We predict that there is a risk that some tribes might attempt to arrange abortion on demand. They suppose which you could be 1/1,000th tribal member and never need to observe the state legislation. And so, that is one thing that we’re watching,” Stitt stated, which is wealthy coming from somebody who has an ancestor who might have bribed his household and a authorized group to enroll within the Cherokee Nation for their very own profit.
Stitt was so pleased with his Fox Information Sunday look jam filled with misguided data that he even posted a clip detailing how he thinks Oklahomans really feel about abortion. “We now have a free market in Oklahoma,” Stitt stated within the clip. “We consider that God has a particular plan for each single life and each single little one and we wish all people to have the identical alternatives in Oklahoma and aborting a toddler just isn’t the fitting reply.” A majority of Oklahomans consider in God, but that isn’t a transparent indicator that they’re anti-abortion, particularly when there’s knowledge on the contrary.
Extra importantly, nevertheless, is that Stitt’s issues over renegade abortion clinics on reservations may very well be unfounded. A report from KOSU discovered that many tribes and suppliers could be reluctant to instantly open up store and set up reproductive well being care amenities on reservations resulting from a mixture of things, together with medical suppliers’ licenses being put in danger and the optics of a tribe instantly changing into identified for offering such medical procedures. Even when tribes had been to determine reproductive well being care clinics, Stitt’s time could be higher spent wanting into why Indigenous communities—and all Oklahomans—proceed to be underserved in relation to reproductive rights.
Trying within the mirror may assist: Because of Stitt’s endorsement of restrictive abortion policies and his aggressively pro-life stance, Oklahomans are discovering locations out of state to obtain crucial medical care like abortions. Kansas is just one example of a state seeing an uptick of Oklahomans touring there for reproductive well being care wants. Oklahoma even as soon as served as a state for Texans to seek abortions, so it’s not like the issue of receiving care goes away; it’s simply been moved additional and farther from essentially the most affected communities.