This spring, the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh whether states can put their citizens’ health first and direct limited Medicaid resources to the most qualified health-care providers in their states rather than to abortion facilities.
On December 18, the high court agreed to hear Kerr v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, where, on behalf of the director of the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Alliance Defending Freedom is asking the Court to protect South Carolina’s right to direct taxpayer dollars to qualified providers of life-affirming, comprehensive health care.
States have a duty to protect the welfare of their citizens and shouldn’t be forced to use citizens’ hard-earned money to pad the coffers of the abortion industry if they determine these facilities aren’t qualified to receive taxpayer funding through Medicaid.
When Congress created the Medicaid program, it asked states to administer the funds and decide which doctors, hospitals, and other medical providers were qualified to provide services. States regularly disqualify medical providers for many reasons, including committing medical malpractice; disregarding health and safety standards; engaging in waste, abuse, or fraud; providing substandard care; abusing patients; and failing to offer certain medical services, just to name a few. That makes sense. Taxpayer dollars should not go to those kinds of clinics.
South Carolina prioritizes life-affirming, comprehensive health care for women and their families. Because Planned Parenthood provides neither of those things, South Carolina deemed it unqualified to receive limited Medicaid funding and directed those critical resources to clinics that provide more comprehensive women’s health services.
The abortion giant Planned Parenthood — which consistently puts its bottom line over women’s health — failed to timely file a state administrative appeal and instead sued South Carolina in federal court because it didn’t like the state’s decision. Planned Parenthood claims that individual Medicaid recipients, not states, have the right to determine who should be a qualified medical provider.
But federal law doesn’t guarantee Medicaid recipients the right to choose a medical provider after a state has deemed that provider unqualified, much less a right to challenge the state’s decision in federal court. And consider the implications if it did: If a state terminated the Medicaid contract of a gynecologist for sexual abuse, or failing to follow basic health and safety guidelines, neither that gynecologist nor any other individual should be able to force the state to reinstate that provider’s Medicaid contract.
There are only limited federal and state public funds for family planning and preventive health services for women. It is the states’ responsibility to steward these funds to ensure they are distributed to the most effective providers. And South Carolina fulfilled its duty to steward these funds efficiently and wisely by distributing them to effective health-care clinics that provide a more comprehensive array of life-affirming services than those focused principally on abortion.
Unfortunately, a federal district court ordered South Carolina to permanently restore Planned Parenthood’s status as a Medicaid provider, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed — in stark contrast to decisions by the Eighth and en banc Fifth Circuits. The Supreme Court has now agreed to hear the case and decide whether the Medicaid Act creates a right for Medicaid recipients to file a lawsuit to challenge a state’s decision to disqualify a specific provider.
But Congress did not create a mechanism for a Medicaid recipient to drag states into federal court to challenge the state’s decisions to protect citizens’ health and to use citizens’ hard-earned tax dollars wisely. Applying the Supreme Court’s decision in Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County v. Talevski, we hope the Court will hold that Congress did not authorize federal courts to second-guess states’ decisions about which providers are qualified to receive Medicaid funding.
South Carolina’s decision to direct funding to health-care clinics across the state that provide more comprehensive and preventative medical care for women and their families — such as facilities that offer mammograms, immunizations, cardiovascular blood tests, radiological services, and well-child services — was reasonable. Also, more than 200 federally qualified health centers in South Carolina provide more comprehensive care to women and their families, including STD testing and cancer screenings, as opposed to Planned Parenthood’s two clinics in the state. South Carolina rightly prioritized women and their families in financial need and determined they deserve the real and more comprehensive health care that those groups provide.
No one should be able to invoke the power of the federal courts to force states to send Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars to fund scandal-laden abortion profiteers like Planned Parenthood. South Carolina is free to use its limited funding to support health clinics that provide comprehensive, holistic care and support to women and their families. The Supreme Court should uphold South Carolina’s decision.