OAN Staff Abril Elfi
9:18 AM – Thursday, June 26, 2025
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that South Carolina has the power to block Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood clinics.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court found the 1965 Medicaid Act does not allow individual patients to sue states over decisions to disqualify their preferred providers from receiving Medicaid funds following a 6-3 decision.
The decision allows the state to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood.
“Like other States, South Carolina has an administrative process that lets providers challenge their exclusion from the State’s Medicaid program,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority.
“… private enforcement does not always benefit the public, not least because it requires States to divert money and attention away from social services and toward litigation. And balancing those costs and benefits poses a question of public policy that, under our system of government, only Congress may answer,” he continued.
Governor Henry McMaster (R-S.C.) has been attempting to prevent public health funding from reaching Planned Parenthood, but a resident and patient at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic claimed that doing so violated her rights under Medicaid law.
The essential element of the 1965 Medicaid Act ensures patients have a “free choice of provider” who is willing and qualified. Much of the debate centered on whether Planned Parenthood was a “qualified provider” under the Medicaid bill, as well as whether individual patients have a clear “right” to sue to see their preferred provider, according to the law’s text.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic has argued that the case is not about abortion, but about access to general healthcare.
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