The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could uphold states’ right to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to hear Kerr v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, a case that could decide whether pro-life states like South Carolina can direct Medicaid funds—funds intended to help low-income individuals obtain necessary medical assistance—away from abortion companies like Planned Parenthood.
Kerr arose after South Carolina’s governor, Henry McMaster, issued an executive order directing the South Carolina Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) to deem abortion clinics unqualified to receive Medicaid funding. Planned Parenthood and an individual plaintiff immediately sued in federal court, challenging the state’s decision.
Both the district court and the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled against South Carolina and the state appealed to the Supreme Court.
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Kerr is a critically important case that could have a dramatic impact on the ability of the states to stop the flow of taxpayer dollars to the nation’s largest abortion company.
Representing the director of the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys asked the high court to take the case following a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that ruled against the state.
“Taxpayer dollars should never be used to fund facilities that make a profit off abortion,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellate Advocacy John Bursch. “Pro-life states like South Carolina should be free to determine that Planned Parenthood and other entities that peddle abortion are not qualified to receive taxpayer funding through Medicaid. Congress did not unambiguously create a right for Medicaid recipients to drag states into federal court to challenge those decisions, so no such right exists. Applying the Supreme Court’s recent decision in the Talevski case, we expect the court to hold that Congress did not intend to allow federal courts to second guess states’ decisions about which providers are qualified to receive Medicaid funding.”
After South Carolina determined that Planned Parenthood was not qualified to receive taxpayer funding as part of its Medicaid program, a federal district court forced the state to permanently restore Planned Parenthood’s funding. ADF attorneys appealed to the 4th Circuit, which ruled against allowing the state to terminate Planned Parenthood as a qualified Medicaid provider.
ADF attorneys then filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking it to hear the case and affirm that the Medicaid Act does not create a private right for Medicaid recipients to challenge a state’s decision that a specific provider like Planned Parenthood is not qualified to receive taxpayer funding. The Supreme Court granted that petition and sent the case back to the 4th Circuit for further consideration after its decision in Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County v. Talevski. The 4th Circuit again ruled against South Carolina, prompting attorneys to file another petition before the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court decided Talevski first. Talevski, which was not an abortion case, involved the interpretation of the Federal Nursing Home Amendments Act (“FNHRA”) – a statute different from the Medicaid Act. Nevertheless, the Court’s analysis in Talevski provided clear guidance to the lower courts, including the Fourth Circuit, about how to analyze the statutory interpretation issues that are also present in Kerr.
