Supreme Court Allows State to Defund Planned Parenthood
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that South Carolina is allowed to block Medicaid funding from going to Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.
The case was brought by Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and a Medicaid patient after South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) signed an executive order in 2018 seeking to exclude the abortion giant from its Medicaid program. The abortion organization argued the order violated federal law and contended that Medicaid patients had a right to sue the state under Section 1983, part of the Civil Right Act of 1871, to choose their own qualified healthcare provider.
The Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision disagreeing with Planned Parenthood’s arguments and siding with South Carolina, essentially allowing the state to defund Planned Parenthood after being blocked from doing so for years by lower courts.
NEW: In Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, a case about whether there is a private right to bring a lawsuit challenging South Carolina's decision to end Planned Parenthood's participation in the state's Medicaid program, the court holds that there is not.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 26, 2025
“Section 1983 permits private plaintiffs to sue for violations of federal spending-power statutes only in ‘atypical’ situations … where the provision in question ‘clear[ly]’ and ‘unambiguous[ly]’ confers an individual ‘right,’” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion, adding that the law in question “is not such a statute.”
“After all, the decision whether to let private plaintiffs enforce a new statutory right poses delicate questions of public policy,” Gorsuch continued. “New rights for some mean new duties for others. And private enforcement actions, meritorious or not, can force governments to direct money away from public services and spend it instead on litigation. The job of resolving how best to weigh those competing costs and benefits belongs to the people’s elected representatives, not unelected judges charged with applying the law as they find it.” (Read more from “Supreme Court Allows State to Defund Planned Parenthood” HERE)
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