U.S. Supreme Court to debate if states can strip Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood
April 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments on if states can ultimately remove Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid funding.
The justices will ultimately decide if Medicaid beneficiaries will be able to freely choose healthcare providers including Planned Parenthood physicians with a ruling potentially arriving as early as June.
"Taxpayers don't want their Medicaid dollars going to an organization that is taking unborn lives," said John Burch, a lawyer representing South Carolina.
Planned Parenthood provides a wide array of health services beyond abortion, cancer screenings, contraception, physical exams, STI treatment and testing.
Nearly $700 million, or about 34% of its total revenue, comes from funding streams like government grants, contracts and Medicaid.
The technical legal dispute will center on if Medicaid patients have a right to file suit to enforce the requirements included in Congressional spending bills.
South Carolina's Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, in 2018 issued an executive order that disqualified Planned Parenthood from getting federal Medicaid reimbursement funding for non-abortion services.
"I have called doctors in the past who have told me they are accepting new patients, only to have them reverse themselves when they find out I have Medicaid," 37-year-old Julie Edwards, a legal challenger, said in 2018 when litigation began. "I feel judged for being poor and disabled, and after a while, that can wear a person down,"
Another lawyer said medical decisions are a personal choice and the state cannot dictate where a person gets medical care.
"South Carolina has conceded throughout this litigation that Planned Parenthood is a medically qualified provider," said Nicole Saharsky, representing Planned Parenthood. The state's real objection, she added, is that "they just don't like Planned Parenthood."
Data shows nearly half of Planned Parenthood's U.S. patients get their health care through Medicaid, but in South Carolina it's more restrictive like in other Republican-lead states like Texas and Arkansas.
"It's not about abortion," Catherine Humphreville, senior staff attorney at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told CNN. "It's about peoples' ability to access basic services like birth control, like well-person exams, like cancer screenings. Many patients just don't have access to these services."
Meanwhile, former top officials in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in March filed a brief arguing against the Trump administration's reversal of "the long-time position of HHS."
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