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US Supreme Court Backs South Carolina Effort To Defund Planned
Clinics serve Medicaid health care program patients
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States look for to deny abortion suppliers of public funds
By Andrew Chung
WASHINGTON, June 26 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for South Carolina to strip Planned Parenthood of funding under the Medicaid medical insurance program in a judgment that strengthens efforts by Republican-led states to deprive the reproductive healthcare and abortion supplier of public cash.
The 6-3 judgment overturned a lower court's decision barring Republican-governed South Carolina from terminating local affiliate Planned Parenthood South Atlantic's involvement in the state's Medicaid program because the organization provides abortions.
The court's 3 liberal justices dissented from the choice.
The case fixated whether recipients of Medicaid, a joint federal and state health insurance coverage program for low-income individuals, may take legal action against to impose a requirement under U.S. law that they might obtain medical support from any qualified and willing provider.
Since the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that had actually legislated abortion nationwide, a variety of Republican-led states have carried out near-total bans or, like South Carolina, prohibitions after 6 weeks of .
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic operates centers in the South Carolina cities of Charleston and Columbia, where it serves hundreds of Medicaid patients each year, providing physical evaluations, screenings for cancer and diabetes, pregnancy testing, contraception and other services.
The Planned Parenthood affiliate and Medicaid client Julie Edwards sued in 2018 after Republican Governor Henry McMaster ordered South Carolina officials to end the organization's participation in the state Medicaid program by deeming any abortion provider unqualified to offer family planning services.
The plaintiffs sued South Carolina under an 1871 U.S. law that assists individuals challenge prohibited acts by state authorities. They said the Medicaid law safeguards what they called a "deeply individual right" to choose one's physician.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom conservative legal group and backed by President Donald Trump's administration, stated the challenged Medicaid arrangement in this case does not satisfy the "high bar for acknowledging private rights."
A federal judge ruled in Planned Parenthood's favor, finding that Medicaid recipients might sue under the 1871 law which the state's transfer to defund the organization breached the right of Edwards to easily choose a certified medical supplier.
In 2024, the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals likewise agreed the complainants.
The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on April 2.
The dispute has reached the Supreme Court 3 times. The court in 2020 rejected South Carolina's appeal at an earlier stage of the case. In 2023, it ordered a lower court to reconsider South Carolina's arguments in light of a ruling the justices had issued including the rights of nursing home citizens that described that laws like Medicaid should unambiguously give people the right to take legal action against.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)
