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US Supreme Court Backs South Carolina Effort To Defund Planned

Clinics serve Medicaid health care program clients

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States seek to deprive abortion companies of public funds

By Andrew Chung

WASHINGTON, June 26 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the method on Thursday for South Carolina to remove Planned Parenthood of funding under the Medicaid health insurance program in a judgment that bolsters efforts by Republican-led states to deprive the reproductive healthcare and abortion supplier of public cash.

The 6-3 judgment reversed a lower court’s decision barring Republican-governed South Carolina from ending regional affiliate Planned Parenthood South Atlantic’s involvement in the state’s Medicaid program since the company supplies abortions.

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

The case fixated whether recipients of Medicaid, a joint federal and state medical insurance program for low-income individuals, may take legal action against to implement a requirement under U.S. law that they might acquire medical support from any certified and willing service provider.

Since the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade judgment that had actually legalized abortion nationwide, a number of Republican-led states have actually carried out near-total restrictions or, like South Carolina, prohibitions after six weeks of pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic operates clinics in the South Carolina cities of Charleston and Columbia, where it serves numerous Medicaid patients each year, providing health examinations, screenings for cancer and diabetes, pregnancy screening, birth control and other services.

The Planned Parenthood affiliate and Medicaid client Julie Edwards took legal action against in 2018 after Republican Governor Henry McMaster bought South Carolina authorities to end the company’s participation in the state Medicaid program by considering any abortion provider unqualified to provide household preparation services.

The plaintiffs took legal action against South Carolina under an 1871 U.S. law that helps individuals challenge illegal acts by state authorities. They said the Medicaid law protects what they called a « deeply individual right » to pick one’s physician.

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 contested Medicaid arrangement in this case does not meet the « high bar for acknowledging private rights. »

A federal judge ruled in Planned Parenthood’s favor, discovering that Medicaid receivers may sue under the 1871 law and that the state’s relocate to defund the organization broke the right of Edwards to freely pick a qualified medical provider.

In 2024, the Richmond, Virginia-based fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also sided with the complainants.

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

The conflict has actually reached the 3 times. The court in 2020 declined South Carolina’s appeal at an earlier phase of the case. In 2023, it bought a lower court to reconsider South Carolina’s arguments in light of a ruling the justices had actually released including the rights of assisted living home locals that explained that laws like Medicaid need to unambiguously give individuals the right to take legal action against.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)