93 GOP Members of Congress Ask the Supreme Court to Let States ‘Defund’ Planned Parenthood
Republican lawmakers support South Carolina in its efforts to stop Planned Parenthood from providing birth control, STI testing, and cancer screenings to low-income people.
Photos: Getty Images AbortionPolitics
This spring, the Supreme Court will hear a case about whether states can kick Planned Parenthood out of their Medicaid programs for non-abortion services, like birth control or cancer screenings. (The state already bans Medicaid from covering abortions in most circumstances.) While Republican-led states have long argued they have a right to do so because the reproductive health organization provides abortions with non-Medicaid money, South Carolina is the first state to get the dispute to the Supreme Court. And on Monday, 93 Republican members of Congress filed a brief with the court asking it to side with South Carolina.
The case, Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, is part of the long-running conservative effort to “defund” Planned Parenthood, which is a misnomer. As a Medicaid provider, Planned Parenthood offers care including birth control, STI testing and treatment, and cancer screenings like Pap smears and breast exams. When people with Medicaid insurance choose to get that care at Planned Parenthood, the program reimburses them for services provided. Contrary to the implication of “defunding,” there’s no line item in the state budget for Planned Parenthood. Representing South Carolina is Alliance Defending Freedom, the same Christian Nationalist law firm that wrote the law that overturned Roe v. Wade and had two abortion cases at the Supreme Court last year.
In 2018, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) signed an executive order directing the state health department to deem abortion providers unqualified to participate in Medicaid because, in his words, it “results in the subsidy of abortion.” The local Planned Parenthood affiliate and a patient named Julie Edwards sued the health department for violating her constitutional rights under an 1871 law, and argued that Medicaid patients can sue to enforce their right, as spelled out in the Medicaid Act, to choose “any qualified provider” who accepts their insurance. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, but the state appealed on the grounds that Medicaid is a federal spending program so the 1871 law doesn’t apply, and here we are.
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