The Supreme Court is allowing South Carolina to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, a win for pro-lifers that will likely clear the way for red states across the country to stop taxpayer dollars from funding abortion.
The justices ruled 6-3 along ideological lines Thursday to permit South Carolina to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion for the Court, siding with the state against a private challenge brought by the abortion provider and a patient.
The plaintiffs in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic argued that Medicaid patients should be free to sue in order to choose their own health-care providers, while the state claimed they lacked the right to sue.
“By rejecting Planned Parenthood’s lawfare, the Court not only saves countless unborn babies from a violent death and their mothers from dangerously shoddy ‘care,’ it also protects Medicaid from exposure to thousands of lawsuits from unqualified providers that would jeopardize the entire program,” said Katie Daniel, director of legal affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
The 1965 Medicaid Act grants patients the ability to choose a willing and qualified provider. Medina dealt with whether patients have the right to sue to go to their preferred provider and whether Planned Parenthood qualified as a provider. Planned Parenthood operates two clinics in the state and argued the case was about healthcare access, not abortion.
South Carolina stopped allowing Planned Parenthood to participate in its Medicaid program in 2018 because of state law barring the public funding of abortion. The move was immediately blocked in court in response to a challenge brought by Julie Edwards, a South Carolina woman who claimed she preferred Planned Parenthood for gynecological care and needed Medicaid coverage.
“States should be free to fund real, comprehensive care and exclude organizations like Planned Parenthood that profit off abortion and distribute dangerous gender-transition drugs to minors,” said Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel John Bursch. The Alliance Defending Freedom represented the South Carolina Department of Health in the case.
“The American people don’t want their tax dollars propping up the abortion industry. The Supreme Court rightly restored the ability of states like South Carolina to steward limited public resources to best serve their citizens,” Bursch added.
Preventing the government from funding abortions is a longtime priority of the pro-life movement. In it most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood said it received $800 million of taxpayer funding, more than $2 million a day, as it performed a record number of abortions.
Republican lawmakers are seeking to defund Planned Parenthood nationally in the “big, beautiful” budget bill currently before the Senate. The Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funds from going towards abortion, but getting Planned Parenthood off Medicaid would ensure the pro-abortion organization no longer receives taxpayer dollars. The Senate parliamentarian is still reviewing the Republican provision to defund Planned Parenthood to determine whether it is permissible in the budget reconciliation process being used for the megabill.
Planned Parenthood has claimed that cutting off taxpayer funds would lead to the closure of up to a third of its brick-and-mortar clinics, potentially making it more difficult for low income women to receive healthcare.
But for every Planned Parenthood clinic in the U.S., there are 15 federally funded clinics offering women’s healthcare, according to a report from the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute. If Medicaid does not reimburse Planned Parenthood clinics anymore, patients can go elsewhere to receive reimbursements for treatment.