US Supreme Court Backs South Carolina Effort To Defund Planned

Clinics serve Medicaid health care program patients

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States look for to deny abortion providers of public funds

By Andrew Chung

WASHINGTON, June 26 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the method on Thursday for South Carolina to Parenthood of moneying under the Medicaid medical insurance program in a ruling that boosts efforts by Republican-led states to deprive the reproductive healthcare and abortion company of public money.

The 6-3 ruling overturned a lower court’s decision barring Republican-governed South Carolina from terminating local affiliate Planned Parenthood South Atlantic’s participation in the state’s Medicaid program since the organization provides abortions.

The court’s three liberal justices dissented from the choice.

The case focused on whether receivers of Medicaid, a joint federal and state medical insurance program for low-income individuals, may sue to enforce a requirement under U.S. law that they might obtain medical assistance from any certified and ready company.

Since the Supreme Court in 2022 reversed its landmark Roe v. Wade judgment that had actually legislated abortion nationwide, a variety of Republican-led states have actually executed near-total restrictions or, like South Carolina, restrictions after 6 weeks of pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic operates centers in the South Carolina cities of Charleston and Columbia, where it serves hundreds of Medicaid patients each year, offering health examinations, screenings for cancer and diabetes, pregnancy testing, contraception and other services.

The Planned Parenthood affiliate and Medicaid patient Julie Edwards sued in 2018 after Republican Governor Henry McMaster bought South Carolina officials to end the company’s participation in the state Medicaid program by deeming any abortion provider unqualified to offer family planning services.

The complainants took legal action against South Carolina under an 1871 U.S. law that helps people challenge prohibited acts by state authorities. They said the Medicaid law safeguards what they called a “deeply individual right” to pick one’s doctor.

The South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom conservative legal group and backed by President Donald Trump’s administration, stated the challenged Medicaid arrangement in this case does not meet the “high bar for acknowledging personal rights.”

A federal judge ruled in Planned Parenthood’s favor, discovering that Medicaid receivers may sue under the 1871 law which the state’s relocate to defund the organization violated the right of Edwards to easily choose a competent medical service provider.

In 2024, the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also agreed the plaintiffs.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in the event on April 2.

The conflict has actually reached the Supreme Court three times. The court in 2020 turned down South Carolina’s appeal at an earlier phase of the case. In 2023, it purchased a lower court to reconsider South Carolina’s arguments due to a ruling the justices had provided involving the rights of assisted living home citizens that discussed that laws like Medicaid need to unambiguously provide individuals the right to take legal action against.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)