The U.S. Supreme Court upheld South Carolina’s decision to block Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds, even for services unrelated to abortion. The case, Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, centered on whether Medicaid beneficiaries have the right to sue to enforce a provision of the Medicaid Act that guarantees patients the ability to seek care from any “qualified and willing provider”—a rule known as the “free choice of provider” provision.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3, with the conservative justices forming the majority. Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the majority opinion, which held that neither Planned Parenthood nor individual Medicaid patients could sue the state to enforce this provider choice provision. The three liberal justices dissented.
Key Details and Implications
The dispute did not directly concern abortion funding, as federal law already prohibits Medicaid from paying for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. Instead, the case was about whether South Carolina could exclude Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program for providing abortion services outside of Medicaid. South Carolina’s Republican governor argued that the state had the authority to disqualify providers for any reason permitted by state law and that taxpayers should not be compelled to subsidize abortion providers. Planned Parenthood clinics in South Carolina offer a range of health services to low-income individuals, including cancer screenings, physical exams, prenatal and postpartum care, contraception, and pregnancy testing—services for which Medicaid typically reimburses providers.
The ruling reverses a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which had allowed Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit to proceed and blocked South Carolina from excluding the organization from Medicaid. The decision is expected to embolden other Republican-led states to exclude Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs.