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US Supreme Court Backs South Carolina Effort To Defund Planned

Clinics serve Medicaid health care program patients

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States seek to deprive abortion suppliers of public funds

By Andrew Chung

WASHINGTON, June 26 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for South Carolina to remove Planned Parenthood of funding under the Medicaid medical insurance program in a judgment that boosts efforts by Republican-led states to deny the reproductive health care and abortion service provider of public cash.

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

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

The case fixated whether recipients of Medicaid, a joint federal and state health insurance coverage program for low-income individuals, might take legal action against to impose a requirement under U.S. law that they may acquire medical help from any qualified and willing supplier.

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

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic runs clinics in the South Carolina cities of Charleston and Columbia, where it serves numerous Medicaid patients each year, supplying physical assessments, screenings for cancer and diabetes, pregnancy testing, birth control and other services.

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

The complainants sued South Carolina under an 1871 U.S. law that helps individuals challenge illegal acts by state authorities. They stated the Medicaid law secures what they called a “deeply individual right” to pick one’s medical professional.

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, said the contested Medicaid provision in this case does not satisfy the “high bar for recognizing private rights.”

A federal judge ruled in Planned Parenthood’s favor, discovering that Medicaid receivers might take legal action against under the 1871 law and that the state’s transfer to defund the the right of Edwards to freely select a certified medical 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 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 reassess South Carolina’s arguments in light of a ruling the justices had actually issued involving the rights of assisted living home homeowners that explained that laws like Medicaid need to unambiguously offer people the right to sue.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)