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The Supreme Court will issue the final opinions of its term on Friday. Chief Justice John Roberts made the courtroom announcement Thursday. Six cases remain to be decided, including whether President Donald Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship can take effect anywhere in the United States. Other remaining cases include whether Maryland parents with religious objections can remove their children from lessons using LGBTQ storybooks and a fight over a second majority black congressional district in Louisiana. |
The case centers on funding for other health care services Planned Parenthood provides in South Carolina, but the ruling could have broader implications for Medicaid patients.
The court split 6-3 in the opinion, with the three liberal justices dissenting. (Read the ruling)
Public health care money generally can't be used to pay for abortions. Medicaid patients go to Planned Parenthood for things like contraception, cancer screenings and pregnancy testing, in part because it can be tough to find a doctor who takes the publicly funded insurance, the organization has said.
"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. 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." John Bursch |
South Carolina's Republican governor says no taxpayer money should go the organization. The budget bill backed by President Donald Trump in Congress would also cut Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. That could force the closure of about 200 centers, most of them in states where abortion is legal, the organization has said.
Gov. Henry McMaster first moved to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood in 2018 but was blocked in court after a lawsuit from a patient named Julie Edwards. Edwards wanted to keep going there for birth control because her diabetes makes pregnancy potentially dangerous, so she sued over a provision in Medicaid law that allows patients to choose their own qualified provider.
South Carolina, though, argued that patients shouldn't be able to file those lawsuits. The state pointed to lower courts that have been swayed by similar arguments and allowed states such as Texas to block Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood.
Public health groups like the American Cancer Society, by contrast, said in court papers that lawsuits are the only real way that Medicaid patients have been able to enforce their right to choose their own doctor. Losing that right would reduce access to health care for people on the program, which is estimated to include one-quarter of everyone in the country. Rural areas could be especially affected, advocates said in court papers.
In South Carolina, $90,000 in Medicaid funding goes to Planned Parenthood every year, a tiny fraction of the state's total Medicaid spending. The state banned abortion at about six weeks' gestation after the high court overturned it as a nationwide right in 2022.
