Supreme Court to Weigh Whether States Can ‘Defund’ Planned Parenthood

In the latest threat to birth control, the court will determine whether anti-abortion states can withhold Medicaid funding from the organization, even for the range of non-abortion services it provides.

By Kylie Cheung | December 18, 2024 | 5:09pm

Photo: Getty Images Politics Sexual Health

Supreme Court to Weigh Whether States Can ‘Defund’ Planned Parenthood

As we approach a new year, we’re still trapped in an inescapable time loop: Conservatives remain trying to defund Planned Parenthood!

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court announced it will take up a case centered around whether South Carolina can withhold Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood—even for the range of non-abortion services it provides. Recall that laws already (stupidly) prohibit federal funding from covering abortion services. Still, that isn’t and has never been enough for anti-abortion activists.

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The case is called Kerr v. Planned Parenthood and stems from a 2018 executive order from South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R). He told the state’s Department of Health and Human Services to deem abortion facilities “unqualified” to provide family planning services under Medicaid. Then, Planned Parenthood and one of its patients, Julie Edwards, sued the state, arguing that cutting off its funding violated a part of the Medicaid Act that allows beneficiaries to choose their provider.

The justices will specifically weigh whether the plaintiff, Edwards, has standing to sue the state under an 1871 law that allows residents to challenge illegal acts by South Carolina officials. The state argues that Edwards doesn’t have standing because Medicaid is a federal program, not governed by the 1871 law in question. South Carolina is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the Christian nationalist law firm behind multiple anti-abortion lawsuits currently being fought in courts across the county.

Kerr has been looping around the legal system since 2018 and already made it to the Supreme Court twice. The justices rejected it in 2020 and then, last year, sent it back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which ruled unanimously in favor of Planned Parenthood and Edwards. South Carolina then appealed that decision to SCOTUS.

This is all a bit wonky. But at its core, this is a case about whether abortion-hostile states can defund organizations that provide essential reproductive health services, the consequences of which are well-documented. During Mike Pence’s tenure as governor of Indiana, his administration defunded Planned Parenthood, leading to a widespread HIV outbreak in one county where 20 new cases were being diagnosed each week during a stretch of 2015.

Currently, one in five American women and girls of reproductive age are insured through Medicaid. Many rely on Planned Parenthood clinics for cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and other sometimes life-saving health services.

As for the implications of all of this for access to birth control? On the campaign trail, Trump suggested he was open to restricting birth control. Immediately after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health in 2022, almost 200 House Republicans voted against a bill to establish a right to birth control. Then, in June, Senate Republicans blocked the Right to Contraception Act, with some senators suggesting they were doing so because emergency contraception is an “abortifacient.” (It’s not!) Plus, there’s that pesky Project 2025, which is slated to be the blueprint of Trump’s second term. It lays out a path to further push birth control out-of-reach for low-income people, ending no-cost insurance coverage of an emergency contraception method and also opening the door for employers to exclude insurance coverage of any contraceptives.

This is all very bleak, and as Kerr heads to the same Supreme Court that overturned Roe, we are reminded that things can always get worse! For no particular reason, consider donating to reproductive health clinics and abortion funds in your community today.