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Supreme Court judges made the decision on Thursday, June 26th, to no longer include Planned Parenthood under Medicaid insurance in the state of South Carolina. The 6-3 ruling comes after a long-standing battle with the state seeking to reduce federal funding for the organization.
South Carolina residents are now unable to terminate a pregnancy after six weeks of being impregnated, and are now at major risk of no longer having accessible healthcare.
With Planned Parenthood clinics already working with limited financial support, patients could also experience an increase in cost of services they previously had covered by the insurance plan or be turned away from services completely.
The case emerged after the 2018 executive order by Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, began stopping clinics across the state from receiving financial support from Medicaid. Supreme Court justices were then caught between deciding whether or not Medicaid beneficiaries were allowed to sue for their right to select a medical provider.
The ruling was also impacted by Planned Parenthood offering abortion care, which has been under heavy scrutiny by the Trump administration. While abortion is already not federally funded, those in favor have argued that funding tied to Planned Parenthood could still help fund the agenda of being in support of abortion.
According to NBC News, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented along with liberal colleagues Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, stating her belief that the ruling conflicted with the 1871 Civil Rights Act, which allowed people to sue for violations of their civil rights. Other bans surrounding pregnancy termination have continued to emerge in states like Indiana, Mississippi, and Louisiana after the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
In a statement from President and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, Paige Johnson, she expressed that the decision impacts American freedom and is a “grave injustice” that has the potential to send South Carolina towards a serious healthcare crisis. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic intends to operate ‘business as usual’ by still including care for people enrolled in Medicaid and reassuring that the organization is still in support of providing reproductive care at an affordable rate.
The Supreme Court ruling has now opened the door for other Republican fueled states to follow suit and restrict all Medicaid access to Planned Parenthood and institutions like it.
SOURCE: ebony.com