States may cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood, even for non-abortion services, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
In a 6-3 decision, split down ideological lines, the conservative majority of the court sided with South Carolina in a case about whether the state was allowed to remove Planned Parenthood from its Medicare roster.
Now, Medicaid patients in South Carolina who sought affordable reproductive healthcare from one of two Planned Parenthood clinics in the state will no longer be reimbursed through the federal healthcare program.
Although federal Medicare funding is not used to cover abortions, with few exceptions, it does allow for Medicaid patients to seek reimbursements for “any qualified and willing provider” – thus giving patients control over choosing their doctors.
But South Carolina’s Republican governor disputed that, saying taxpayers who disagreed with abortion should not be forced to pay for providers who perform abortions.
While often characterized as a controversial organization due to its abortion services, Planned Parenthood clinics provide necessary reproductive healthcare services as well as sexual health services and education.
South Carolina does not permit abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
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