The US Supreme Court has paved the way for pro-life American states to effectively defund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s biggest abortion provider.
A landmark ruling means that an executive order in the state of South Carolina which its Governor signed in 2018, can finally be enforced.
That will cut off reimbursements to the abortion provider from the state’s Medicaid health insurance program.
Up to 20 other pro-life states could follow suit and target all abortion providers.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SEEKING TO DEFUND ABORTION PROVIDERS
Federal funding for abortions is already banned, but the Trump Administration is seeking to stop all taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood which offers other reproductive and health-related services.
That would financially restrict the provider’s operations and force the closure of as many as 200 abortion clinics if a proposed federal defunding bill passes the Senate after scraping through the House of Representatives
The US Supreme Court ruled that states can block Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid money for not only abortions, but also services such as contraception and cancer screenings,
That’s despite its decision not being directly about abortion.
WHAT THE US SUPREME COURT ACTUALLY RULED ON
The case centered on whether recipients of Medicaid, a joint federal and state health insurance program for low-income people, may sue to enforce a requirement under US law that they may obtain medical assistance from any qualified and willing provider.
All six conservative justices found that while Medicaid law allows patients to choose their own provider, that does not make it a right, enforceable in court.
The crux of the judgement is that patients cannot sue to enforce their right to pick a medical provider.
That closes off Planned Parenthood’s primary legal path through the courts to keeping Medicaid funding in place.
Public health care money generally cannot be used to pay for abortions, but Medicaid patients go to Planned Parenthood for other needs, in part because it can be difficult to find a doctor who takes the publicly funded insurance.
CASE HAS DRAGGED THROUGH THE COURTS FOR EIGHT YEARS
South Carolina’s Republican governor Henry McMaster first moved to cut off the Medicaid funding through an executive order in 2018, but he was blocked by lower courts after a lawsuit from a patient.
Governor McMaster said his state had taken “a stand to protect the sanctity of life and defend South Carolina’s authority and values — and today, we are finally victorious.”
White House spokesman Harrison Fields called the opinion of the nation’s highest court “a major victory for common sense.”
He added it underscores President Trump’s position that states should determine abortion policy.
PRO-LIFE STATES LIKELY TO INDIRECTLY CUT FUNDING FOR ABORTIONS
Other pro-life states are now expected to withdraw Medicaid reimbursements to abortion providers.
Eighteen states weighed into the case in support of South Carolina.
Planned Parenthood will continue to provide care for women who need it in South Carolina, but won’t bill the state government.
In South Carolina, only A$140,000 in Medicaid funding goes to Planned Parenthood every year, a tiny fraction of the state’s total Medicaid spending.
That’s because a state ‘heartbeat’ law bans abortions after six-weeks gestation.
