WASHINGTON, D.C., October 13, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – The United States Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from South Carolina to reinstate its ability to exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funds, the court’s second abortion-related action since the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
In 2018, South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order disqualifying abortion facilities as Medicaid providers in the state. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic sued to block the order and received a preliminary injunction. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction, leading the state to appeal the case to the nation’s highest court.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied the state’s appeal in an order list that gave no indication of where individual justices fell on the question. Four justices are sufficient to grant a writ of certiorari, however, indicating that while Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito likely agreed to hear the case, only one of the other “conservative” justices – John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh – did the same.
Abortion advocates insist that tax dollars to abortion-involved facilities for other purposes don’t support abortions, but pro-lifers warn that such subsidies ultimately enable abortion groups to commit more abortions by freeing up money from their other revenue services. Duke University healthcare analyst Chris Conover estimated in 2015 that taxpayers ultimately cover almost 25 percent of all abortion costs.
Additionally, legitimate providers of women’s health services dwarf abortion-involved facilities across the country. As of 2015, federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics outnumbered Planned Parenthood facilities 268 to two in South Carolina. Today, Planned Parenthood still has just two locations in the Palmetto state.
Senate confirmation hearings are currently underway for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump’s choice to replace Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. It is widely believed that Barrett would be another pro-life vote.