This Case, In a Nutshell   

“This case encompasses two key issues. First, it addresses whether a provision in the Medicaid Act entitles the beneficiary to choose any medical provider; second, if a Medicaid beneficiary can pick a provider that has been disqualified by the state.    

While the state of South Carolina does not want abortion funding in their healthcare programs, Planned Parenthood insists that its state funding cannot be cut because women have the “right” to make Planned Parenthood their ‘chosen provider’ on the taxpayers’ dime.”  

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What We Saw at SCOTUS  

With a sea of pro-life advocates, media, cameras, lawyers, and pro-abortion protestors, the front steps of the Supreme Court had not been this packed since Roe v. Wade was reversed in June 2022. 

From “trans-rights are human rights” sign-bearers to an army of Planned Parenthood zealots encircling the Pro-Life Generation (PLG), it was clear that this Supreme Court case has abortion supporters nervous.  

Argument Breakdown 

A lot of the arguments involved whether going to the U.S. Supreme Court was necessary to resolve this disagreement. This case could be dismissed because it has not gone through any other review, but the lawyers argued that it’s such a profound disagreement that it would be better not to kick it back, as its return to the U.S. Supreme Court would be inevitable. So, they posited, it’s best to fix it now.   

The following is our breakdown of the April 2^nd hearing – direct quotes are formatted as such.  

Planned Parenthood to SCOTUS: If there’s money on the table, we get paid because we are “qualified” to do a few things. In setting up insurance, you created a “right” to coverage, and by extension, our right to be part of the program. If you choose to help people, you can’t decide to cut us out.   

South Carolina to Planned Parenthood: Our desire to help poor people doesn’t mean you get anything. A program like Medicaid is for poor people to have health insurance and not for you to get paid. Planned Parenthood is not the center of the healthcare universe, as our program is for others, not you. And you’re not “qualified,” which is part of the problem. Saying we want to provide some benefits is not a “magic word” that means you have a right to be in our program or that an individual has a right to take the money and shop for whatever they want. The words “rights,” “privilege,” or “free choice” are not in the statute itself. It’s just the words that the abortion lobby and their legal friends are using to try and cut themselves in, and we can cut you out.   

Trump Administration: SCOTUSblog: “In a friend of the court brief supporting South Carolina, the Trump administration agrees with South Carolina that Congress did not intend to create a privately enforceable right in the “any qualified provider” provision. If it had, the Trump administration posits, it would not have ‘bur[ied]’ it ‘deep within’ the Medicaid law and omitted the ‘term ‘right’ or other equally unmistakable rights-conferring language.” The Administration’s brief here.  

Pro-Life Analysis  

Students for Life’s Conclusion 

The existence of a program that pays out is taken as a mandate for funding Big Abortion solely because they are good at paperwork. They get “qualified” to get paid. President Donald Trump must now act to find them unqualified – debarred – as the case is being made that if any program exists, they can be in it because they are “qualified.”  

A Key Question 

In creating a benefit (health insurance for the poor), did South Carolina (or any governmental body) effectively create a “right” (for an abortion vendor to get paid)?  

NO.  

Once again, you see Big Abortion skip over healthcare to get to your money. Planned Parenthood takes advantage of the compassion of Americans for women in need to force themselves on the payroll.    

But another issue is whether, having been given the gift of “free” healthcare, an individual can sue to shop where they want. The Alliance Defending Freedom lawyer makes a good case that providing health insurance with that “individual right” in place opens states to getting sued a lot, so the intent could not really have been to create that level of entitlement.   

Or, if we are paying, we have a say, says South Carolina.    

As the Supreme Court heard arguments on whether South Carolina could choose to kick Planned Parenthood off their provider list for healthcare, the atmosphere outside was much more dramatic than the internal discussion, which was highly technical and, frankly, constitutional. Many of us have read the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights and heard the rights articulated in soaring language. But in this case, the abortion lobby claims that rights were hidden in some healthcare contracts.   

And while that might sound dull if you don’t like reading the fine print, the bottom line is whether we must keep Planned Parenthood OFF the public dole. It’s time to debar and defund Planned Parenthood. 

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