Federal law already prohibits Medicaid money from going to pay for abortions, with very limited exceptions, and South Carolina now bans almost all abortions around six weeks after conception.
Still, Republican leaders in conservative-led states have long said that no public health care dollars should go to an organization that provides abortions, and states should instead be able to direct that money as they choose. A few states already have cut Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood and more could follow if South Carolina prevails.
“The people in this state do not want their tax money to go to that organization,” Governor Henry McMaster said.
The Trump administration is joining South Carolina for the arguments on Wednesday, which are playing out against the backdrop of a wider push by abortion opponents to defund Planned Parenthood.
The case stretches back to 2018, before the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortion, when McMaster first moved to cut Planned Parenthood funding in a fulfillment of a campaign promise. He signed an executive order removing Planned Parenthood from a list of providers for things like birth control, and sexually transmitted disease testing.
“There are plenty of good organizations that provide maternal health advice, counseling and care and we need more of those,” McMaster said last week.
His order was blocked in court, but since then judges have ruled in favor of similar moves in Texas and Missouri, said John Bursch, an attorney for the conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom.
“At the highest level, this case is about whether states have the flexibility to direct Medicaid moneys to best benefit low-income women and families,” he said.
He acknowledged that a win for South Carolina could curtail other Medicaid lawsuits, but suggested that could be good for the program overall because it would mean less money going to legal fees. There is also an administrative appeals process available, he said.
“No one is losing their access to health care clinics,” Busch said. If the state is allowed to cut off Planned Parenthood, Medicaid patients could go to one of 200 other publicly funded health care clinics in the state, he said.
