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Oklahoma Governor Bans State Travel To California

Sue Ogrocki / AP Photo

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt announced today that he is banning state-funded travel to California.

In explaining his decision, Governor Stitt cited a San Francisco policy that bans city-funded travel to states with restrictive abortion laws. That includes Oklahoma, which doesn’t allow abortions after 22 weeks, and has a 72-hour waiting period for the procedure.

“This is something that they banned because of our values in Oklahoma,” the governor said. “And so we’re proud of our pro-life stance, and I don’t want to spend state dollars back in California if that state is going to refuse to spend dollars in our state.”

Stitt was referring to a San Francisco policy adopted in October. But actually, city-funded travel to Oklahoma hasn’t been allowed since November 2018.

The Board of Supervisors banned travel to the state then, citing its discriminatory adoption policies. Oklahoma allows adoption agencies to reject qualified LGBTQ parents, and refuse to place LGBTQ children in adoptive homes based on religious grounds.

It’s not just San Francisco. California has also banned state-funded travel to Oklahoma since 2018. That, too, was because of the discriminatory adoption policies, not the restrictive abortion laws.

Ozzy Llinas Goodman is a freelance writer and journalist based in Berkeley. Their reporting interests include the uses and policing of public space, underground communities and solidarity economies, and other topics related to human movement, urban space, and civil rights.