Washington (AP) In a decision issued Thursday, the split Supreme Court permitted states to stop providing Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, part of a larger effort by Republicans to defund the largest abortion provider in the nation.
In a case that wasn’t specifically about abortion, the 6-3 ruling was rendered. Instead, it concerns Medicaid financing for other health care services that Planned Parenthood offers, such as pregnancy testing, cancer screenings, and contraception.
Because it prevents Medicaid patients from suing to ensure they may see the provider of their choice, the decision, which was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch and supported by the other conservative members of the court, may have wider ramifications for Medicaid recipients.
Abortions are typically not covered by public health care funds. Finding a doctor who accepts the publicly financed insurance can be difficult, which is one of the reasons Medicaid patients turn to Planned Parenthood for other needs, according to the group.
The Republican governor of South Carolina claims that the organization shouldn’t receive any public funds. Planned Parenthood would also lose Medicaid funds under the budget package that President Donald Trump is supporting in Congress. According to the group, that would result in the closure of over 200 facilities, the most of which are located in jurisdictions where abortion is permitted.
In 2018, Governor Henry McMaster attempted to stop Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds, but the court stopped his plan after a patient named Julie Edwards filed a case. Edwards sued over a Medicaid statute clause that permits patients to select their own qualified physician because she wanted to continue visiting there for birth control because her diabetes makes pregnancy potentially unsafe.
However, South Carolina contended that those cases shouldn’t be allowed to be filed by patients. The state cited lower courts that had been persuaded by comparable reasons and let states like Texas to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid payments.
The majority of the top court concurred. Gorsuch said that elected officials, not courts, must weigh the costs and benefits of allowing private enforcement when making difficult policy judgments.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was supported by her liberal colleagues in dissent, stated that the decision is likely to cause real people to suffer real suffering.
It will deprive those South Carolinians and innumerable other Medicaid patients nationwide of a very personal freedom: the choice of who provides care for us when we are most in need,” she said.
In court documents, public health organizations such as the American Cancer Society stated that Medicaid users have only been able to effectively protect their right to select their own physician through lawsuits. For those on the program, which is thought to encompass a quarter of the nation’s population, losing that right would limit their access to health care. Advocates stated in court documents that rural communities would be particularly impacted.
Planned Parenthood receives $90,000 in Medicaid cash annually in South Carolina, which is a very small portion of the state’s overall Medicaid spending. After the high court declared abortion to be a national right in 2022, the state outlawed it at roughly six weeks of pregnancy. According to the state, other providers can cover the gap in health care caused by Planned Parenthood’s exclusion from Medicaid.
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