States can cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, the Supreme Court rules
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court allowed states to cut off Medicaid money to Planned Parenthood in a ruling handed down Thursday amid a wider Republican-backed push to defund the country's biggest abortion provider.
The case centers on funding for other health care services Planned Parenthood provides in South Carolina, but the ruling could have broader implications for Medicaid patients.
Public health care money generally can't be used to pay for abortions. Medicaid patients go to Planned Parenthood for things like contraception, cancer screenings and pregnancy testing, in part because it can be tough to find a doctor who takes the publicly funded insurance, the organization has said.
South Carolina's Republican governor says no taxpayer money should go the organization. The budget bill backed by President Donald Trump in Congress would also cut Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. That could force the closure of about 200 centers, most of them in states where abortion is legal, the organization has said.
Gov. Henry McMaster first moved to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood in 2018 but was blocked in court after a lawsuit from a patient named Julie Edwards. Edwards wanted to keep going there for birth control because her diabetes makes pregnancy potentially dangerous, so she sued over a provision in Medicaid law that allows patients to choose their own qualified provider.
South Carolina, though, argued that patients shouldn't be able to file those lawsuits. The state pointed to lower courts that have been swayed by similar arguments and allowed states such as Texas to block Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood.
Public health groups like the American Cancer Society, by contrast, said in court papers that lawsuits are the only real way that Medicaid patients have been able to enforce their right to choose their own doctor. Losing that right would reduce access to health care for people on the program, which is estimated to include one-quarter of everyone in the country. Rural areas could be especially affected, advocates said in court papers.
In South Carolina, $90,000 in Medicaid funding goes to Planned Parenthood every year, a tiny fraction of the state's total Medicaid spending. The state banned abortion at about six weeks' gestation after the high court overturned it as a nationwide right in 2022.
Monday Mornings
The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week.
___
Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Star
23 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
An Israeli strike kills 18 Palestinians in central Gaza as turmoil mounts over food distribution
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike hit a street in central Gaza on Thursday where witnesses said a crowd of people was getting bags of flour from a Palestinian police unit that had confiscated the goods from gangs looting aid convoys. Hospital officials said 18 people were killed. The strike was the latest violence surrounding the distribution of food to Gaza's population, which has been thrown into turmoil over the past month. After blocking all food for 2 1/2 months, Israel has allowed only a trickle of supplies into the territory since mid-May.
Winnipeg Free Press
31 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Spain's leader sticks by decision to break with NATO on spending despite Trump tariff threats
MADRID (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez walked away from this week's NATO summit with an opt-out from spending more on defense. He also left with fresh threats of tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump. On Thursday, the progressive Spanish leader stuck by his decision to break with NATO allies and responded to Trump's comments by pointing out that the European Commission — and not Spain — was who decided the bloc's trade policy. 'What is clear is that trade policy is a policy directed from here, from Brussels,' Sánchez said. 'Spain is an open country. It is a country that is friendly to its friends, and we consider the United States a friend of Spain.' At the military alliance's summit Wednesday, members agreed to raise their defense spending to 5% of GDP. But Sánchez secured a last-minute exemption, saying that Spain will only spend up to 2.1%, which he called 'sufficient and realistic.' Trump criticized Spain after the summit, saying the country wanted 'a little bit of a free ride,' and that it would 'have to pay it back to us on trade' through higher tariffs. How Sánchez's gamble could play out was up for debate on Thursday. 'It is not always easy to interpret exactly what Mr. Trump means,' Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever told reporters at an EU summit. 'How he wants to impose import tariffs on Spain separately is a mystery to everyone. Could this perhaps concern specific products from Spain? We will have to wait and see.' Spain's move on the international stage comes at a complex moment for Sánchez at home as corruption cases involving his inner circle have ensnared his Socialist party and resulted in louder calls — even from some leftwing allies — to announce early elections. So far, Sánchez has refused. 'To Trump's theatre, Sánchez responds with something similar,' said Montserrat Nebrera, political analyst and professor of constitutional law at the International University of Catalonia. 'Domestic problems are piling up, and this resistance to meeting the arbitrary 5% target also seeks to wink at his partners most critical of defense spending.' Spain was NATO's lowest spender last year, according to the alliance's estimates, spending around 1.28% of its GDP on defense expenditure. In April, Sánchez announced that the country would reach 2% this year, for which he was criticized by some leftwing allies. On Thursday, Antonio Garamendi, president of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations, criticized Sánchez for the spending opt-out. 'We have to stick with with our allies and not going along with the other Europeans is an error, and even more so if that increases the chance we will be punished,' Garamendi said. While Spain is under the umbrella of the European Union, which negotiates trade deals on behalf of all 27 member countries, it could still be targeted by tariffs that hit its most vulnerable industries, Garamendi said. He specifically pointed to Spanish steel, cars and olive oil sectors. 'There are industries that can be impacted, and that has to concern us,' he added. ___ Wilson reported from Barcelona. AP journalist Lorne Cook contributed from Brussels.
Winnipeg Free Press
31 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
An Israeli strike kills 18 Palestinians in central Gaza as turmoil mounts over food distribution
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike hit a street in central Gaza on Thursday where witnesses said a crowd of people was getting bags of flour from a Palestinian police unit that had confiscated the goods from gangs looting aid convoys. Hospital officials said 18 people were killed. The strike was the latest violence surrounding the distribution of food to Gaza's population, which has been thrown into turmoil over the past month. After blocking all food for 2 1/2 months, Israel has allowed only a trickle of supplies into the territory since mid-May. Efforts by the United Nations to distribute the food have been plagued by armed gangs looting trucks and by crowds of desperate people offloading supplies from convoys. The strike in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Thursday appeared to target members of Sahm, a security unit tasked with stopping looters and cracking down on merchants who sell stolen aid at high prices. The unit is part of Gaza's Hamas-led Interior Ministry, but includes members of other factions. A horrific scene Witnesses said the Sahm unit was distributing bags of flour and other goods confiscated from looters and corrupt merchants, drawing a crowd when the strike hit. Video of the aftermath showed bodies, several torn, of multiple young men in the street with blood splattering on the pavement and walls of buildings. The dead included a child and at least seven Sahmt members, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where casualties were taken. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has accused the militant Hamas group of stealing aid and using it to prop up its rule in the enclave. Israeli forces have repeatedly struck Gaza's police, considering them a branch of Hamas. An association of Gaza's influential clans and tribes said Wednesday they have started an independent effort to guard aid convoys to prevent looting. The National Gathering of Palestinian Clans and Tribes said it helped escort a rare shipment of flour that entered northern Gaza that evening. It was unclear, however, if the association had coordinated with the U.N. or Israeli authorities. The World Food Program did not immediately respond to requests for comment by The Associated Press. 'We will no longer allow thieves to steal from the convoys for the merchants and force us to buy them for high prices,' Abu Ahmad al-Gharbawi, a figure involved in the tribal effort, told the AP. Accusations from Israel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz in a joint statement Wednesday accused Hamas of stealing aid that is entering northern Gaza, and called on the Israeli military to plan to prevent it. The National Gathering slammed the statement, saying the accusation of theft was aimed at justifying the Israeli military's 'aggressive practices.' It said aid was 'fully secured' by the tribes, which it said were committed to delivering the supplies to the population. The move by tribes to protect aid convoys brings yet another player in an aid situation that has become fragmented, confused and violent, even as Gaza's more than 2 million Palestinians struggle to feed their families. Throughout the more than 20-month-old war, the U.N. led the massive aid operation by humanitarian groups providing food, shelter, medicine and other goods to Palestinians even amid the fighting. U.N. and other aid groups say that when significant amounts of supplies are allowed into Gaza, looting and theft dwindles. Israel, however, seeks to replace the U.N.-led system, saying Hamas has been siphoning off large amounts of supplies from it, a claim the U.N. and other aid groups deny. Israel has backed an American private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has started distributing food boxes at four locations, mainly in the far south of Gaza for the past month. Thousands of Palestinians walk for hours to reach the hubs, moving through Israeli military zones where witnesses say Israeli troops regularly open fire with heavy barrages to control the crowds. Health officials say hundreds of people have been killed and wounded. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots. A trickle of aid Israel has continued to allow a smaller number of aid trucks into Gaza for U.N. distribution. The World Health Organization said on Thursday it had been able to deliver its first medical shipment into Gaza since March 2, with nine trucks bringing blood, plasma and other supplies to Nasser Hospital, the biggest hospital still functioning in southern Gaza. In Gaza City, large crowds gathered Thursday at an aid distribution point to receive bags of flour from the convoy that arrived the previous evening, according to photos taken by a cameraman collaborating with the AP. Hiba Khalil, a mother of seven, said she can't afford looted aid that is sold in markets for astronomical prices and was relieved to get flour for the first time in months. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. 'We've waited for months without having flour or eating much and our children would always cry,' she said. Another woman, Umm Alaa Mekdad, said she hoped more convoys would make it through after struggling to deal with looters. 'The gangs used to take our shares and the shares of our children who slept hungry and thirsty,' she said. Separately, Israeli strikes overnight and early Thursday killed at least 28 people across the Gaza Strip, according to the territory's Health Ministry. More than 20 dead arrived at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, while the bodies of eight others were taken to Nasser Hospital in the south. ___ Follow AP's war coverage at
