South Carolina Can Deny Medicaid Patients Planned Parenthood Care, SCOTUS Rules

The Supreme Court moved to limit access to soundness care for over million South Carolinians on Thursday by allowing the state to block Medicaid recipients from getting care at Planned Parenthood The tight restriction on reproductive rights will likely pave the way for similar bans in other states as ongoing attacks on abortion providers further impinge on access to maternal gynecological and other basic forms of vitality care In a - decision the court determined that Planned Parenthood clinics and patients in South Carolina may not sue the state for denying Medicaid funding to the reproductive care provider The ruling overturns repeated lower court decisions that affirmed Medicaid recipients rights to visit a provider of their choosing that accepts the undertaking It comes against the backdrop of looming federal cuts to Medicaid which would further restrict healthcare care access for millions of low-income Americans In South Carolina abortion is already subjected to a near-total ban State law prohibits abortion after six weeks with limited exceptions which is often before someone would be aware that they re pregnant Republican South Carolina Gov Henry McMaster has been direct about wanting to target Planned Parenthood because the infrastructure of clinics is known as an abortion provider South Carolina has made it clear that we value the right to life McMaster revealed in a February comment Therefore taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize abortion providers who are in direct opposition to their beliefs Related Trump Puts Lives at Hazard by Revoking Crisis Abortion Guidelines for Hospitals The idea that Medicaid is subsidizing abortion care in South Carolina is incredibly misleading announced Susanna Birdsong general counsel and vice president of compliance at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic Medicaid does not cover abortion except in very narrow circumstances of rape incest in life of the pregnant person Birdsong mentioned That s been a federal rule since the s Planned Parenthood provides care for a host of other sexual and reproductive wellness concerns meaning that low-income South Carolinians will lose access to wellbeing care that has nothing to do with abortion Birdsong announced She pointed to things like testing for sexually transmitted infections cancer screening and birth control In its ruling the court made clear that it was aware of the other services Planned Parenthood provides Planned Parenthood South Atlantic operates two clinics in South Carolina offering a wide range of services to Medicaid and non-Medicaid patients reads a summary of the decision It also performs abortions The court noted that Planned Parenthood and a recipient sued under the any-qualified-provider provision which allows Medicaid patients to seek care from a provider of their choosing but the majority determined they did not necessarily have an enforceable right to do so Experts expect that this decision will open the floodgates for other states to pass similar bans limiting access to the largest provider of reproductive and sexual wellbeing care in the United States for millions of lower-income Americans Other states certainly have tried it before reported Dr Jamila Perritt an OB-GYN and president of the nonprofit Physicians for Reproductive Healthcare Much in the same way that abortion bans really swept this country I think we re going to see similar effects The decision to limit where Medicaid patients can access care disproportionately affects women of color explained Perritt As of the majority of people enrolled in Medicaid in South Carolina were nonwhite and roughly percent of Medicaid enrollees were Black according to robustness guidelines research nonprofit KFF Even before the decision access to soundness care particularly reproductive and sexual strength care in South Carolina was a challenge for lower-income residents Roughly of the state s counties are considered federally designated Strength Professional Shortage Areas and Medicaid recipients are disproportionately likely to live in communities with provider shortages We re talking about communities that are already marginalized from care communities that already have disproportionately poor reproductive and sexual healthcare outcomes noted Perritt who predicted the decision would have essential negative robustness consequences Aside from having one of the strictest abortion bans in the country South Carolina is one of only states not to expand Medicaid coverage since the Affordable Care Act was passed in South Carolina also has the eighth-highest maternal mortality rate in the country hovering around pregnancy-related deaths per live births and certain of the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections in the nation It s really a state that should be investing more in its residents healthcare infrastructure and making sure that people who live in the state have access to the care that they need commented Birdsong Jennifer Driver senior director of reproductive rights for State Innovation Exchange declared like the state s abortion ban lower-income people in South Carolina will bear the brunt of the burden of this decision It targets people who are already limited on support to say You know what On top of that you in fact don t get to have a decision on the care that you get and the provider you get it from she explained Read Our Complete Coverage The End of Roe At the same time the Trump administration and Congress are seeking to further restrict healthcare coverage for low-income Americans A Congressional Budget Office overview located that the House of Representatives version of the Big Beautiful Bill would leave million Americans without wellness insurance and kick million people off of Medicaid Senate Republicans are considering their own set of Medicaid cuts though they ve been snarled by political opposition This is a clear and obvious attack on people with low income people who rely on Planned Parenthood clinics to get life-saving vitality services noted Perritt She described the decision as part of the regime s broader efforts to eliminate access to comprehensive vitality care for folks really across the country This has to also be understood as an attack that reaches far beyond the borders of South Carolina The post South Carolina Can Deny Medicaid Patients Planned Parenthood Care SCOTUS Rules appeared first on The Intercept