US Supreme Court weighs state defunding of Planned Parenthood over abortion

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday over a move by the state of South Carolina to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood because the reproductive health organization provides abortions.

South Carolina’s Republican governor Henry McMaster issued an executive order in 2018 cutting off reimbursements to the two Planned Parenthood clinics in the state for services provided to low-income Americans under the government’s Medicaid program.

The Medicaid reimbursements were not for abortion-related services, but McMaster said providing any funding to Planned Parenthood amounts to a taxpayer “subsidy of abortion,” which is banned in South Carolina for women who are more than six weeks pregnant.

Planned Parenthood, which provides a wide range of health services, and a South Carolina woman suffering from diabetes filed suit against the state arguing that Medicaid patients have the right to receive care from any qualified provider.

An appeals court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot be excluded from the state’s Medicaid program and South Carolina appealed to the Supreme Court, where conservatives wield a 6-3 majority.

The court appeared divided after hearing nearly two hours of oral arguments and it was not immediately clear how the justices would rule.

Justice Elena Kagan, one of the three liberals on the top court, said the ban on Planned Parenthood appeared to be at odds with the requirement that Medicaid patients can receive health care from a doctor of their choosing. “The state has to ensure that individuals have a right to choose their doctor,” Kagan said. “That’s what this provision is.”

Otherwise, she said, every state could split up the world by medical providers. “It could be people who do provide abortion, people who don’t provide abortion, people who do provide contraception, people who don’t provide contraception,” Kagan said.