The split Supreme Court allowed the state to cut off Medicaid money for planned parent-child relationships in a ruling reported Thursday amid a broader Republican-backed push to refund the nation’s largest abortion provider.
The case focuses on funding for Planned Parenthood, another healthcare service offered in South Carolina, but the ruling could have a broader impact on Medicaid patients.
The court split the 6-3 with opinions, with three Liberal justice opposed.
Generally, public health cannot be used to pay for abortions. Medicaid patients go to planned custody for birth control, cancer screening, pregnancy tests and more. This is because finding physicians with publicly funded insurance can be difficult, the organization says.
The Republican governor of South Carolina said taxpayer money should not go to the organization. The budget bill, supported by President Donald Trump in Congress, will cut Medicaid funding to planned parents. It could force the closure of around 200 centres, most of them in states where abortion is legal, the organization said.
Gov. Henry McMaster first moved Medicaid funds in 2018 to cut off Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood, but was blocked in court after a lawsuit from a patient named Julie Edwards. Edwards sued over a provision in the Medicaid Act that allowed patients to choose their qualifying provider because diabetes would potentially put a pregnancy in danger.
However, South Carolina argued that patients should not be able to file these cases. The state pointed to lower courts that were swayed by similar arguments, allowing states such as Texas to block Medicaid funding from planned parents.
In contrast, public health groups like the American Cancer Society said in court documents that it was the only real way that Medicaid patients could implement the right to choose their own physician. Losing that right will reduce access to healthcare for people in the program, including quarters for everyone in the country. Rural areas could be particularly affected, supporters said in court documents.
In South Carolina, $90,000 of Medicaid funds is spent on planned parent-child relationships each year, a small portion of the state’s Medicaid spending. The state banned abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy after the High Court overturned it in 2022 as a national right.
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