The US Supreme Court has ruled that South Carolina can exclude Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid programme because of its role as an abortion provider, a decision that could encourage other conservative states to follow suit. The case, Medina v Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, centred on a 2018 executive order by South Carolina's governor, Henry McMaster, which blocked clinics that provide abortions from receiving Medicaid reimbursements. Medicaid is the primary health insurance programme for low-income Americans, serving around 80 million people.
The ruling did not directly address whether South Carolina could legally remove Planned Parenthood from Medicaid. Instead, the justices decided a technical question: whether Medicaid beneficiaries have the right to sue if they believe their right to choose their own provider has been violated. In a 6-3 decision, the court's conservative majority found that individuals do not possess such an 'enforceable right'. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that deciding how to balance competing costs and benefits belongs to elected representatives, not judges.
The decision marks a victory for the anti-abortion legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented South Carolina. It is part of a long-running effort to 'defund' Planned Parenthood by cutting it out of Medicaid. Nearly half of the 2.4 million patients treated at Planned Parenthood each year rely on Medicaid. The three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warning that the ruling would cause 'tangible harm to real people' by stripping Medicaid recipients of their only meaningful way to enforce their rights.
