SCOTUS will hear oral arguments Wednesday for Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic in a case regarding whether states can prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds.
In 2018, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster issued an executive order barring any clinic that provides abortion care from participating in the state’s Medicaid program.
Lower courts have blocked the order from going into effect. But if it does, the policy could reduce access to reproductive health care and cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood for low-income South Carolinians and serve as a template for other conservative states to follow. Texas, Arkansas and Missouri have already eliminated Planned Parenthood from Medicaid.
Some reproductive rights groups also worry that if the policy is enacted, it could encourage the Department of Health and Human Services to take further action against Planned Parenthood. The Trump administration is arguing alongside South Carolina.
According to health law experts, the case isn’t really about abortion. Medicaid is prohibited from covering almost all abortion except in some dire circumstances. At issue is whether Medicaid patients can choose their providers for any services, not just reproductive care.
Planned Parenthood is the country’s largest abortion services provider but also offers sexually transmitted infection treatment and cancer screenings, among other services. It also receives a significant amount of money from Medicaid.
Medicaid covers almost 1 in 5 people in South Carolina, and the policy at play in the case primarily impacts women, Black and Brown people.
More than 60 percent of Medicaid recipients in South Carolina are women, according to the reproductive rights organization the Guttmacher Institute. Nearly 3 out of 5 South Carolinians enrolled in Medicaid identify as non-white.
Planned Parenthood expects thousands of supporters to rally outside of the Supreme Court tomorrow at 9:45 a.m. EDT ahead of oral arguments, the organization said in a press release.
