The Supreme Court heard arguments on whether South Carolina can remove Planned Parenthood clinics from its state Medicaid program, even though those funds cannot generally be used to fund abortions.
The U.S. Supreme Court seemed closely divided on Wednesday in a case testing whether states can remove Planned Parenthood clinics from state Medicaid programs — even though Medicaid cannot generally be used to fund abortions.
Under the Medicaid law, the federal government provides the lion’s share of Medicaid funding for all fifty states. In exchange, the states must meet a variety of requirements. One of those is that Medicaid patients are entitled to choose their doctors. In the words of the statute, they are entitled to treatment from „any qualified [and willing] provider.“
In South Carolina, that includes Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, which provides low-income patients with many run-of-the-mill services, from cancer screenings to full physical exams.
But in 2018, the state’s Republican governor issued executive orders terminating Planned Parenthood from participating in the Medicaid program. Those orders were repeatedly blocked by the lower courts, prompting South Carolina to appeal.
Planned Parenthood has long trumpeted the fact that it provides health care in all fifty states. But this case could end that nationwide footprint, if the Supreme Court rules in favor of South Carolina.
On Wednesday, the question before the Supreme Court was whether individuals can go to court at all to vindicate their right to choose their doctors under the Medicaid law.
Lawyer John Bursch, representing South Carolina, argued that the Medicaid statute does not mention the word „right“ or its „functional equivalent“, and thus individuals have no right to sue to enforce the choice-of-doctor provision.
