OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Oklahoma has become the next state to cut the abortion giant Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program, as officials revealed this week that its contract with Planned Parenthood will end in June.

As previously reported, last November, Gov. Mary Fallin sent a letter to the state’s Health Care Authority Board to call for an end to Planned Parenthood’s participation in the program due to fraud concerns.

“Research strongly suggests that Planned Parenthood and its Oklahoma and national affiliates regularly, whether intentionally or negligently, engage in a pattern of practices resulting in the overbilling of state Medicaid programs,” she wrote. “Numerous False Claims Act whistleblower lawsuits around the country have also alleged potential fraud by Planned Parenthood affiliates.”

Fallin noted that the October Program and Integrity Review surrounding Planned Parenthood affiliates in Oklahoma shows that “more than one in every seven bills submitted for payment … are inaccurately coded or insufficiently documented.” She advised that the state had paid over $300,000 within a two year period to the two Planned Parenthood locations in the state.

“These results are alarming,” Fallin opined. “These errors result in overbilling to the Oklahoma taxpayer.”

This week, Oklahoma Health Care Authority Chief Executive Officer Nico Gomez told reporters that Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma and Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma were notified in February that their contract would be cancelled.

“My decision in February was made based upon what I firmly believe to be the best interests of this agency going forward,” Gomez told the Associated Press.

In her letter last November, Fallin noted that the move would not effect women’s health care in the state as there are only two Planned Parenthood facilities, but over a hundred women’s health providers in Oklahoma.

“There are only two Planned Parenthood affiliates in the state operating in about six metropolitan locations in Oklahoma City and Tulsa,” she wrote. “However, there are more than 120 other metropolitan and rural providers available … all of whom provide a broader spectrum of health care services than Planned Parenthood’s limited metropolitan locations.”

As previously reported, in its annual report released at the end of December, the national office of Planned Parenthood outlined that the organization performed 323,999 abortions nationwide during the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

As it has been in previous years, Planned Parenthood’s largest focus was sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s), as it tested and/or treated over four million people for sexual ailments, with over 3.5 million tests and 32 thousand men and women being treated for ailments contracted through sexual activity.

Over 2.9 million people were provided with contraceptives or other forms of birth control in 2014—from temporary to permanent, including over 900 thousand emergency contraception kits. The figure is down from 3.5 million the year before, and 3.7 million in 2012.

Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms as it is not licensed to operate mammogram machines, and its annual report outlined that less than 700,000 women received services surrounding cancer screenings, equating to just seven percent of its services, while STD testing and contraceptives accounted for 76 percent of its services.

“Governor Fallin is right to recognize that taxpayer money should go to fund local community health centers, not to subsidize a scandal-ridden, billion-dollar abortion business,” Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Legal Counsel Kellie Fiedorek said in a statement.

“Oklahomans shouldn’t be forced to give their money to Planned Parenthood, which has a long track record of abusive and potentially fraudulent billing practices, not to mention that it has also been caught in authenticated undercover videos trafficking aborted babies’ body parts and has repeatedly failed to report the sexual abuse of girls,” she said. “That tax money should be redirected to trusted health care providers.”

“Our doors remain open for the people who choose Planned Parenthood for their health care, including patients covered by Medicaid,” Tamya Cox, an attorney for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, said in a statement.

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