Supreme Court rejects challenge to South Carolina defunding Planned Parenthood

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood cannot move forward.

In a 6–3 decision that split along ideological lines, the high court found the 1965 Medicaid Act does not allow individual patients to sue states over decisions to disqualify their preferred providers from receiving Medicaid money — enabling South Carolina to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood.

People gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., June 29, 2024. REUTERS

The ruling overturns a lower court decision that had allowed the lawsuit to move forward.

Like other States, South Carolina has an administrative process that lets providers challenge their exclusion from the State’s Medicaid program,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority. “… private 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. And balancing those costs and benefits poses a question of public policy that, under our system of government, only Congress may answer.”