States can remove Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, saying that individuals on Medicaid cannot sue if a state denies them access to their chosen health care provider.
The 6-3 opinion paves the way for other Republican states to ban Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs without repercussion.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court’s opinion that it is “rare” for any statute to “confer an enforceable right” and “spending-power statutes like Medicaid are especially unlikely to do so.”
The case, Medina v. Planned Parenthood, centered around Julie Edwards, a Medicaid beneficiary in South Carolina who has received care at Planned Parenthood. She challenged an executive order from Gov. Henry McMaster that banned all clinics that provide abortion from the state’s Medicaid provider list.
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The Medicaid Act states that “any individual eligible for medical assistance … may obtain such assistance from any institution, agency, community pharmacy, or person, qualified to perform the service or services required … who undertakes to provide him such services.” While lower courts held that that language creates an individual right that can be enforced by private action, the justices’ decision reversed those rulings.
“This Court has emphasized, statutes create individual rights only in ‘atypical case[s],’ Gorsuch wrote. “But [federal law] provides a cause of action ‘only for the deprivation of rights, privileges, or immunities,’ not ‘benefits’ or ‘interests.’”
Gorsuch concluded that a law secures “an enforceable right, privilege, or immunity” only if it “clear[ly] and unambiguous[ly]” uses “rights-creating terms.” Because the Medicaid Act does not contain that language, he ultimately declared, choosing a health provider is not a right.
Planned Parenthood President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson was participating in a Democratic “shadow” congressional hearing on “Republican Attacks on Reproductive Freedom” as a witness when the Supreme Court ruling came down.
“As I understand it, the Medina decision came down,” Johnson said, right after House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark asked her what would happen to patients if Planned Parenthood is defunded.
Defunding Planned Parenthood, Johnson continued after a pause, “means that people will delay or forgo care or will have to find a way to travel hours in order to get access to that care, and the consequences can be deadly.”
“I’m honestly trying to contain my rage in this moment,” Johnson said later in the hearing, when Rep. Diana DeGette asked for a reaction to the ruling. “What this decision means is that people no longer have the dignity to pick their own providers.”
Johnson said one million patients — roughly half of Planned Parenthood’s total patients — are on Medicaid.
Immediately after the hearing ended, House Democrats approached Johnson to talk about the Supreme Court opinion.
Speaking to reporters outside of the hearing room, Johnson said that between the ruling and congressional Republicans’ attempt to defund Planned Parenthood through their reconciliation bill, “It feels like we are under attack from all sides for providing life-affirming sexual reproductive health care for millions of patients across this country.”
She said that she was prepared for the ruling to drop while the hearing was ongoing since Supreme Court opinions were expected to come out in the morning.
“We are nearing the end of the [Supreme Court] term. It is not unlike the Dobbs decision that came down right around this moment,” Johnson said. “They wait until the end when they can leave town and run away from the decisions that will impact people, in the same way that Congress likes to put these provisions in the dark of night.”
Anti-abortion advocates immediately celebrated the ruling.
“Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer-funded gravy train is swiftly coming to an end. Its days of posing as a ‘trusted health care provider’ are over,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement.
Dannenfelser immediately urged Republicans in Congress to “finish what they’ve started.”
“The Supreme Court held that Planned Parenthood doesn’t have a right to bring this type of lawsuit in federal court,” said Carolyn McDonnell, litigation counsel for Americans United for Life. “This is a win not only for South Carolina, but for the pro-life movement by channeling public funding into authentic women’s healthcare instead of abortion businesses.”
The Senate Parliamentarian is currently reviewing whether a federal provision to defund Planned Parenthood can stay on the reconciliation bill.
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Oriana González is a reporter at NOTUS.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated what law Gorsuch was referring to in part of his opinion. He was referring to §1983, the Civil Rights Act of 1871, which allowed people to sue when their rights are being violated.
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