South-Carolina
Supreme Court allows South Carolina to defend right to defund Planned Parenthood
The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a lower court order blocking South Carolina’s attempt to prevent Medicaid funding from going to Planned Parenthood, sending the case back to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic had sued on behalf of Medicaid patient Julie Edwards in 2018 when Republican Gov. Henry McMaster (R-SC) signed an executive order removing the organization from South Carolina’s Medicaid program list.
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The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court’s permanent injunction against the defunding measure in 2022, saying that it infringed upon the patient’s right to obtain other forms of non-abortion healthcare, such as contraception and cancer screenings.
The Alliance Defending Freedom filed a petition with the Supreme Court on the basis that Congress did not grant Medicaid recipients the right to sue a state if the state has determined that an organization ought not to be eligible for taxpayer funding.
“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,” said ADF senior counsel Chris Schandevel.
Schandevel said that his team is “grateful the 4th Circuit will have another opportunity to hold that Congress did not intend to allow federal courts to second guess states’ decisions about which providers are qualified to receive Medicaid funding.”
The federal appeals court is supposed to review the case again in light of the recent Supreme Court decision in a different case that outlines the limited exceptions in which citizens are able to sue while on public health assistance programs.
Planned Parenthood has not yet issued a statement on Tuesday’s ruling.
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South Carolina has been at the heart of the abortion debate in recent weeks. Within less than 24 hours of McMaster signing a fetal heartbeat bill that would ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic was awarded an emergency injunction blocking the legislation from being implemented.
Oral arguments for that case are set to be heard by the South Carolina Supreme Court on June 27. This will be three days after the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision that overturned the constitutional interpretation that recognized federally protected abortion rights.