During the Oklahoma State Department of Health’s Senate budget hearing Tuesday, Health and Human Services Chair Paul Rosino said he wants the department to prepare for the possibility the state would see its federal family planning money restored under President Donald Trump.
Sen. Rosino (R-Oklahoma City) said the Trump administration “probably would be helpful” in Oklahoma’s fight to win back Title X funding it lost in 2023 when it refused to meet one of the grant’s requirements to provide counseling to pregnant people on all options, including abortion if a patient requests it.
The Legislature has stepped in with funding to fill in the gaps. But Rosino said if the money were to return to Oklahoma this fiscal year, the state’s financial support would be clawed back.
“Make sure you keep that in your budget analysis, that if that grant comes, we're going to ask for that money back that the state had stepped up when the federal government did not,” Rosino said.
The first Trump administration issued regulations on Title X prohibiting sites that received funding from referring clients seeking abortions to providers, according to KFF.
A lawsuit from Oklahoma's attorney general seeking to recoup the lost funding is ongoing.