WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled for South Carolina in its effort to defund Planned Parenthood, concluding that individual Medicaid patients cannot sue to enforce their right to pick a medical provider.
The court held in a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, with the conservative justices in the majority, that the federal law in question does not allow people who are enrolled in the Medicaid program to file such claims against the state.
The ruling written by Justice Neil Gorsuch is a boost to the state’s effort to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving funding through Medicaid, a federal program for low-income people that is administered by the states, because it prevents individual patients from enforcing their right to choose their preferred health care provider.
“Congress knows how to give a grantee clear and unambiguous notice that, if it accepts federal funds, it may face private suits asserting an individual right to choose a medical provider,” Gorsuch wrote.
But, he added, “that is not the law we have.”
Federal funding for abortion is already banned, but conservatives have long targeted Planned Parenthood, which provides reproductive health services including abortions where allowed, for any funding it receives even if it is for other health care-related services.
They argue that even nonabortion related funding that flows to Planned Parenthood would help it carry out its broader agenda that favors abortion rights.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented along with her two liberal colleagues, writing in her opinion that the decision was part of a long line of rulings that has undermined the 1871 Civil Rights Act that was enacted after the Civil War to allow people to sue for civil rights violations.
“South Carolina asks us to hollow out that provision so that the state can evade liability for violating the rights of its Medicaid recipients to choose their own doctors,” she said. “The court abides South Carolina’s request. I would not.”
The state’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood came before the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights ruling in 2022.
South Carolina now has a six-week abortion ban, meaning abortions are rare in the state.
Planned Parenthood has facilities in Charleston and Columbia that provide abortion care in compliance with the new law, as well as other health care services, including contraception, cancer screenings and pregnancy testing.
In 2018, Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order that prohibited Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, the local affiliate of the national group, from providing family planning services under Medicaid.
Julie Edwards, a Medicaid-eligible patient who wants to use Planned Parenthood, joined a lawsuit filed by the group, saying that under federal civil rights law she could enforce her rights in court.
A federal judge ruled in her favor, and after lengthy litigation, the Supreme Court agreed to weigh in.
