Supreme Court to hear South Carolina's attempt to defund Planned Parenthood

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will hear arguments about whether South Carolina can disqualify Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid program.  

The case centers on a 2018 executive order from South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) that ordered the state’s Department of Health and Human Services to deem abortion facilities “unqualified” to provide family planning services under Medicaid.  

“Taxpayer dollars should never fund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood,” McMaster said in a statement. “In 2018, I issued an executive order to end this practice in South Carolina. I'm confident the U.S. Supreme Court will agree with me that states shouldn't be forced to subsidize abortions.” 

Planned Parenthood operates two clinics in the state. It provides non-abortion services, including cancer screenings, annual physicals, birth control, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. But McMaster’s order said that because Planned Parenthood was also an abortion provider, it shouldn’t get taxpayer funds. 

Medicaid can’t pay for abortion except in cases of rape, incest or when a woman’s life is at risk. 

Planned Parenthood and one of its patients sued, claiming the order violated federal law that allows Medicaid patients to get care from any qualified provider of their choice.  

A district court blocked the order from being enforced, and the case has since split multiple appeals court circuits.  

The case has made it to the Supreme Court twice previously.  

The justices declined to take the case up four years ago but last year sent the case back to an appeals court in light of a separate case in which the Supreme Court ruled that nursing home residents whose care was paid by Medicaid could sue a state-owned health care facility over alleged violations of civil rights. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit then ruled unanimously in favor of the plaintiff. South Carolina appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.  

The state is represented by the Christian legal powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).  

“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,” ADF senior counsel John Bursch said in a statement. “Congress did not unambiguously create a right for Medicaid recipients to drag states into federal court to challenge those decisions, so no such right exists.” 

The justices agreed to take up a single question regarding the qualified provider provision and whether it “unambiguously confers a private right upon a Medicaid beneficiary to choose a specific provider." 

“Every person should be able to access quality, affordable health care from a provider they trust, no matter their income or insurance status,” Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said in a statement. “This case is politics at its worst: anti-abortion politicians using their power to target Planned Parenthood and block people who use Medicaid as their primary form of insurance from getting essential health care like cancer screenings and birth control.”