WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to consider whether South Carolina and other states have the right to exclude Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses from receiving taxpayer dollars through Medicaid.
In March, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that South Carolina had to restore Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood after the state deemed the abortion giant not qualified, claiming Medicaid recipients had a right to the provider of their choice. The Supreme Court had previously ordered the Fourth Circuit to reconsider its previous ruling to that effect in light of its Talevski ruling, which concerned whether the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act (FNHRA) created federal rights healthcare recipients could enforce via lawsuits.
In July, 68 Congressional Republicans urged the nation’s highest court to take up the case, arguing that “South Carolina has every right to determine what qualifies and disqualifies Medicaid healthcare providers operating within our state,” and “Private parties like Planned Parenthood have no right to undermine congressional intent.”
Now, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case, CNN reported, offering hope of a more definitive resolution.
“Taxpayer dollars should never fund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood,” Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said. “In 2018, I issued an executive order to end this practice in South Carolina. I’m confident the U.S. Supreme Court will agree with me that states shouldn’t be forced to subsidize abortions.”
Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and restored the elected branches of government’s right to decide abortion policy through the democratic process, 13 states ban most abortions, with lesser restrictions and regulations on the books in numerous others.
In response, Democrats and the abortion lobby have been working feverishly to reinforce abortion “access” through a variety of strategies. Among them are legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, placing abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors, enshrining abortion “rights” in state constitutions, and expanding the distribution of abortion pills into pro-life states by letting them be ordered and dispensed by mail, making abortion bans harder to enforce.
Taxpayer funding is key to perpetuating the abortion industry in the post-Roe landscape. Nationally, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s annual report released in April reveals that the organization committed 392,715 abortions in the most recent reporting period, a record number. Planned Parenthood received $699.3 million in government grants and reimbursements in 2023, a 4.2 percent rise over its funding the previous year.