Oklahoma Republican Wants to End a Prenatal Program So Undocumented Parents Can't Use It

Earlier this week, Oklahoma Republican state senator Paul Scott proposed legislation that would eliminate a program that provides prenatal healthcare services to low-income pregnant Oklahomans. His reason? He’s upset that pregnant undocumented people are able to use the program. Sounds like a nice guy.

According to KFOR, the program Scott wants to get rid of, known as Soon-to-be-Sooners, provides ultrasounds, doctor’s visits, and regular check-ups for pregnant Oklahomans, regardless of their immigration status, who make up to 185 percent of the federal poverty line.

Scott is perfectly happy to gut the program all in the name of satisfying his desire to make the lives of undocumented Oklahomans increasingly miserable. “I found from staff today that there are twice as many non-documented mothers in the program than there are Oklahomans in the program, so that says a lot right there. That we’re providing twice as much for non-documented mothers as we are Oklahoman mothers,” Scott, who tellingly does not include undocumented Oklahomans under his definition of “Oklahoman mothers,” told KFOR. Of the fact that his proposed legislation would affect all people who benefit from the program, he said, “That is never my intent.” Okay.

Scott, who was elected to the state Senate in 2016, has quickly shown himself to be an utter ass. In 2017, Scott filed a bill to ban abortions if a fetal heartbeat could be detected. Scott also helpfully shared his thoughts about professional athletes taking a knee to protest police brutality, writing in an op-ed that “the way they’re protesting is causing further division,” conflating athletes’ protest with “dishonoring the U.S. flag.”

Asked to respond, he dug himself into a deeper hole in a rambling interview:

“But, I mean, you can’t go out and paint a mustache on Abraham Lincoln. You know, or the Washington Monument? You can’t go paint, ‘Go Mexico,’ on the Washington Monument and get away with it. So, I’m the same way with my flag. That’s a symbol of freedom. Go over to Iraq and burn their flag and see what happens to [you.] Just like my article stated, I’m not against freedom of speech, all of these things, but whenever you go to basically that level of dishonoring your country and I mean, I just do not believe in it. I just totally do not believe in it.”

That interview somehow got worse:

“I know that they feel—I mean, I’m not a black man so I cannot sit here and say, ‘I know how you feel, brother,’ because I don’t. I grew up as a white man,” Scott said. “—I agree that if they feel there’s police brutality or whatever toward a black man—well there’s statistics out there that far more white guys get shot and killed than the black person. Far more. And the thing is—but nobody hollers about that, you know what I’m saying? Nobody—is yelling about, ‘Oh, they shot my nephew— he got out of the truck and didn’t have a gun and was running and turned around and held his hands up and they shot him!’—You don’t hear those stories, you know? But, if it’s a black, young man—it’s just like the story’s on steroids or something.”

Oh, and in 2017, Scott voted for a bill that would have banned local municipalities from passing laws outlawing discrimination on the basis of one’s sexual orientation and gender.