A new group, founded by a politically active minister and lobbyist representing Catholic bishops, is now in charge of distributing millions to pregnancy resource centers, faith-based groups and other nonprofits. It’s called the Oklahoma Life Foundation.
An investigation by The Frontier and StateImpact Oklahoma found groups like the Oklahoma Life Foundation are largely responsible for vetting and monitoring the nonprofits they reimburse. There’s no competitive bidding process through the state for these nonprofits to get public money.
Here are five key takeaways from The Frontier’s reporting with StateImpact Oklahoma.
- Oklahoma’s Choosing Childbirth program was created by lawmakers in 2017 and has since become a key strategy to support young children and pregnant women amid the state’s near-total abortion ban. In 2024, former Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, wrote legislation expanding the program to include ultrasounds, mental health and substance abuse services, and transportation assistance for mothers and children up to three years old.
- The Oklahoma Life Foundation received about one-third of the program’s 2024 state appropriation of $18 million. The group plans to distribute about $5.1 million to service providers across the state. About $400,000 of the state money will go toward paying six Oklahoma Life Foundation staff.
- The Oklahoma Life Foundation’s Executive Director is Paul Abner, who previously sold curriculum and purity rings to promote sexual abstinence until marriage. He’s campaigned against recreational marijuana and abortion and acted as a campaign consultant for U.S. Sen. James Lankford. Co-founder Brett Farley lobbies for the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma.
- Pregnancy resource centers and other nonprofits that get Choosing Childbirth funding directly through the Health Department must apply through a competitive bid process, completing an application with a project summary, a line-item budget with explanations, and a work plan with goals and objectives. Grant supervisors like the Oklahoma Life Foundation are in charge of overseeing the application, onboarding and monitoring process for the nonprofits they reimburse. The Health Department has final approval over who gets the money and reviews all financial documentation before reimbursements.
- The Health Department says grant supervisors can help provide support to small organizations and ensure services reach rural and underserved communities. But a few of the organizations the Oklahoma Life Foundation plans to reimburse are much larger, including Her First Women’s Health. The new telehealth brand was created by Dallas-based nonprofit Heroic Media, which made $2.3 million in 2023. Heroic Media hopes to eventually build a nationwide telehealth and referral network of pregnancy resource centers and other service providers for women.
