US Supreme Court lets states defund Planned Parenthood

The Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling this Thursday that allows states to remove funding from the public Medicaid plan for Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of reproductive health and abortion services in the country.

The decision of the Supreme Court was split 6-3, with the conservative majority in favor of limiting funds and three liberal judges against the ruling. According to reports from the organization itself, the public health money allocated to Planned Parenthood is not used to perform abortions, but for contraceptive drugs, pregnancy tests, and other related matters. Additionally, only 5% of Medicaid beneficiaries have requested sexual and reproductive health services in this network so far this year according to their data. The network encompasses about 600 care centers across the US. "Today's decision is a grave injustice that strikes at the very bedrock of American freedom and promises to send South Carolina deeper into a health care crisis (...) Gov.

McMaster's intent is clear: weaponize anti-abortion sentiment to deprive communities with low incomes of basic health care," reacted the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, Paige Johnson. According to Johnson, the network will "continue to operate and offer care" in South Carolina even to those enrolled in Medicaid. "We will do everything in our power to ensure you can get the care you need at low cost or no cost," she added. A lower court had previously barred the Republican-governed South Carolina state from preventing Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, a regional branch, from participating in the state's Medicaid program.

The ruling now prevents a Medicaid beneficiary from suing state governments to include Planned Parenthood services in their health coverage. Although abortion in South Carolina is prohibited after six weeks of gestation, Republicans allege that funds from the health program for low-income individuals were used to perform abortions in the Planned Parenthood centers. The ruling aids in preventing people who depend on the state health plan from accessing medical care through Planned Parenthood. During the hearing held in April, the panel of judges had already shown itself to be divided.

Conservatives were reluctant, as they explained in the ruling, to allow a patient to sue South Carolina to access the family planning clinic under health coverage. On the other hand, the liberal judges insisted that the law that created the government health program establishes that patients must be able to be treated by any provider that accepts Medicaid. This setback represents a new attack on reproductive rights in the United States after the Supreme Court eliminated the right to abortion at the national level in 2022 and left decisions on this matter to the states. As a result, abortion is illegal or severely restricted, with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest, in 23 of the 50 states in the US, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. EFE ecs/ags