Supreme Court Mulls South Carolina Effort to Defund Planned Parenthood

The U.S. Supreme Court is set Wednesday to consider South Carolina's bid to strip Planned Parenthood of funding under the Medicaid program in a case that could bolster efforts by Republican-led states to restrict abortions and public funding for them.

The justices are due to hear arguments in South Carolina's appeal of a lower court's decision barring the Republican-governed state from terminating Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, the organization's regional affiliate, because the organization provides abortions.

The case centers on whether recipients of Medicaid, a joint federal and state health insurance program for low-income people, may sue to enforce a requirement under U.S. law that they may obtain medical assistance from any qualified and willing provider.

Since the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide, 12 states have implemented near-total bans while four states, including South Carolina, outlaw abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic operates clinics in the South Carolina cities of Charleston and Columbia, where it serves hundreds of Medicaid patients each year, providing physical examinations, screenings for cancer and diabetes, pregnancy testing, contraception and other services.

The Planned Parenthood affiliate and Medicaid patient Julie Edwards sued in 2018 after Republican Gov. Henry McMaster ordered state officials to end the organization's participation in the state Medicaid program by deeming any abortion provider unqualified to provide family planning services.

The suit was brought under an 1871 U.S. law that helps people challenge illegal acts by state officials. It is the third time that the South Carolina Planned Parenthood defunding dispute has reached the Supreme Court, which in 2020 rejected the state's appeal at an earlier stage of the case. In 2023, the justices ordered a lower court to reconsider the state's arguments in light of a new ruling they had just issued that explained that people may sue to enforce a federal statute if such a right in the law is unambiguous.

"The statute here readily meets that test," the plaintiffs told the Supreme Court in a filing. "It protects a deeply personal right that is fundamental to individual dignity and autonomy – the right to choose one's doctor."

The South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom conservative legal group and backed by President Donald Trump's administration, said the disputed Medicaid provision in this case does not meet the "high bar for recognizing private rights."

Planned Parenthood said Monday the Trump administration is withholding federal family planning funding to the organization under a program known as Title X, affecting birth control, cancer screenings and other services for low-income people.

In the South Carolina case, a federal judge ruled in Planned Parenthood's favor, finding that Medicaid recipients may sue under the 1871 law and that the state's move to defund the organization violated the right of Edwards to freely choose a qualified medical provider.

In 2024, the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the plaintiffs.

"Preserving access to Planned Parenthood and other providers means preserving an affordable choice and quality care for an untold number of mothers and infants in South Carolina," the 4th Circuit said in its ruling.

A Supreme Court ruling is expected by the end of June.