WASHINGTON – A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday permits states such as South Carolina to reroute public funds away from abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.

Alliance Defending Freedom lawyers are representing the head of the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in the legal matter Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. The recent decision by the supreme court allows the state to allocate Medicaid funds, which are supposed to aid low-income individuals in receiving essential medical care, towards comprehensive healthcare services as opposed to organizations primarily focused on abortion procedures.

“States should be free to fund real, comprehensive care and exclude organizations like Planned Parenthood that profit off abortion and distribute dangerous gender-transition drugs to minors,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellate Advocacy John Bursch, who argued before the court. “The American people don’t want their tax dollars propping up the abortion industry. The Supreme Court rightly restored the ability of states like South Carolina to steward limited public resources to best serve their citizens.”

The Impact of Funding Decisions on Organizations Like Planned Parenthood

“[P]rivate enforcement does not always benefit the public, not least because it requires States to divert money and attention away from social services and toward litigation,” the court wrote in its opinion. “And balancing those costs and benefits poses a question of public policy that, under our system of government, only Congress may answer.”

The US government, 18 states, several Congress members, medical practitioners in South Carolina, and many pro-life supporters filed amicus briefs with the high court in favor of South Carolina’s ability to allocate Medicaid funding to healthcare services rather than abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.

A Planned Parenthood spokesperson responded as follows: “Today, a majority of the Supreme Court has deprived people in the Medicaid program of the ability to go to court to enforce a right that Congress provided them: the right to choose their healthcare provider. This move is one of a series of attacks recently on the ability of the American people to access the courts to enforce their rights and, as the dissenting justices note, will result in ‘tangible harm to real people,’” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward.

“For decades, Planned Parenthood has provided essential care to people across the nation. Despite this disappointment, our team at Democracy Forward will continue our work every day to enable the American people to defend their rights in courts, to enhance access to reproductive health care and oppose misinformation, to defend evidence-based policymaking, and to support the essential services Planned Parenthood and other trusted healthcare professionals provide to millions across the nation.”