Planned Parenthood is fighting back against any action that tries to diminish its influence.
According to WFMY News, the pro-abortion organization announced Sunday that it is suing to overturn South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s order preventing it from providing services under the state’s taxpayer-funded Medicaid health plan.
In early July, McMaster vetoed a health care spending bill that included tax dollars for Planned Parenthood.
“Taxpayer dollars must not directly or indirectly subsidize abortion providers like Planned Parenthood,” McMaster said when he announced his veto. “There are a variety of agencies, clinics and medical entities in South Carolina that receive taxpayer funding (that) offer important women’s health and family-planning services without performing abortions.”
Planned Parenthood said in a statement that McMaster is breaking federal law because Medicaid patients must be allowed to visit any provider that accepts the program.
McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes said the South Carolina governor will fight the lawsuit as hard as he can because he does not think taxpayer money should go to any group that provides abortions.
McMaster’s veto was a bold move, but it has been consistent with the actions he has taken during his time as governor. The week after he announced his veto, McMaster also issued an executive order that instructed the state Department of Health and Human Services to “terminate abortion clinics as Medicaid providers.” The Republican governor’s order also instructs the department to continue covering necessary medical care for state Medicare patients until he and lawmakers have worked out the funding.
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Last year, McMaster instructed the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to request a waiver from the federal government to defund abortion groups of Medicaid dollars. That waiver has not yet been granted, but McMaster said he will not back down.
In May, he described Planned Parenthood as a “blemish on the great character of the people of South Carolina and this country.”
Planned Parenthood insisted McMaster’s decision will leave thousands of poor women on Medicaid without basic medical exams for women’s health.
However, the abortion giant itself has reduced its breast cancer screening, pap tests, and colonoscopy procedures in the past decade, according to The Radiance Foundation. Planned Parenthood’s primary focus is abortion. It aborts approximately 320,000 babies per year, which is about 37 percent of the total number of abortions committed in the United States annually.
Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report showed a record income of $1.46 billion, with about half a billion dollars coming from taxpayers. At the federal level, President Donald Trump and his administration also have been cutting off various streams of funding to abortion groups.
Furthermore, in December, the U.S. Department of Justice said it is investigating whether the Planned Parenthood abortion chain illegally sold aborted baby body parts.
