The Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to consider whether South Carolina may eliminate Medicaid funding for any medical services offered by Planned Parenthood because it performs abortions.
Medicaid gives federal money to states to provide medical care for poor people, but it sets some conditions. One is that eligible participants may obtain assistance from any provider qualified to perform the required services.
Planned Parenthood clinics in Charleston and Columbia provide counseling, physical exams, contraception and screenings for cancer and sexually transmitted infections. Abortions are banned in South Carolina after six weeks of pregnancy, and, even then, federal law prohibits the use of Medicaid funding except in life-threatening circumstances or in cases of rape or incest.
In 2018, South Carolina’s governor, Henry McMaster, a Republican, ordered state officials to deny Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood, saying that “payment of taxpayer funds to abortion clinics, for any purpose, results in the subsidy of abortion and the denial of the right to life.”
Planned Parenthood and a patient who sought contraception sued, and a federal trial judge blocked the directive, saying that it ran afoul of Medicaid’s provision offering a free choice of provider.
The litigation that followed was convoluted and circuitous, focusing largely on whether the provision created a right that individuals could enforce.
In the latest decision, in March, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., ruled that the lawsuit was proper.
“This case is, and always has been, about whether Congress conferred an individually enforceable right for Medicaid beneficiaries to freely choose their health care provider,” Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote for the panel. “Preserving access to Planned Parenthood and other providers means preserving an affordable choice and quality care for an untold number of mothers and infants in South Carolina.”
He added that “this decision is not about funding or providing abortions.”
“On the contrary,” Judge Wilkinson wrote, “our analysis would be the same regardless of whether South Carolina wanted to divert the funds because Planned Parenthood provided cancer screening, pregnancy testing or any other medical care it is qualified to provide.”
The states, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian group, asked the Supreme Court to hear the case.
“Taxpayer dollars should never be used to fund facilities that make a profit off abortion,” John Bursch, a lawyer with the group, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Pro-life states like South Carolina should be free to determine that Planned Parenthood and other entities that peddle abortion are not qualified to receive taxpayer funding through Medicaid.”
Lawyers for Planned Parenthood responded that the case, Kerr v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, No. 23-1275, was straightforward, and they urged the Supreme Court to deny review.
“Planned Parenthood affiliates provide essential medical care to low-income individuals through state Medicaid programs,” their brief said. “South Carolina terminated the Medicaid provider agreement of a Planned Parenthood affiliate without cause.”
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