Supreme Court to weigh if South Carolina may cut Planned Parenthood funding

The Supreme Court on Wednesday will debate whether patients may sue states that cut Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, teeing up a dispute over preventive healthcare that has been drawn into the fraught national fight over abortion access.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday will debate whether patients may sue states that cut Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, teeing up a dispute over preventive healthcare that has been drawn into the fraught national fight over abortion access. A ruling from the conservative Supreme Court, expected by the end of June, could have profound implications for the ability of patients to access care at Planned Parenthood clinics across the country and may shed light on when Americans may sue to enforce the requirements that Congress includes in spending laws. Though technically not about abortion, the appeal has attracted enormous attention from groups engaged in that issue. In one telling sign of that dynamic, the director of the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will be represented at the Supreme Court by Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious legal group that helped orchestrate the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. At issue is an executive order South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed in 2018 that yanked Medicaid funding for the state’s two Planned Parenthood clinics. The Republican governor argued that those payments amounted to a taxpayer subsidy for abortion. Federal and state law prohibit Medicaid from paying for abortions in most cases. McMaster’s order had the effect of also blocking patients from receiving other services from Planned Parenthood. A patient named Julie Edwards, who has diabetes, and Planned Parenthood South Atlantic sued the state, noting that federal law gives Medicaid patients a right to access care at any qualified doctor’s office willing to see them.