Supreme Court Says States Can Cut Off Medicaid Funds For Planned Parenthood

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that South Carolina is allowed to ban Medicaid funds from going to Planned Parenthood.

Justices voted 6-3 to reverse the Fourth Circuit’s ruling that an individual Medicaid user could bring a federal civil rights lawsuit over Planned Parenthood being excluded from Medicaid in South Carolina.

Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the court’s opinion, saying that Medicaid law does not clearly give patients the right to sue. He noted that states have the authority to decide which health care providers are “qualified” and can participate in Medicaid — for example, doctors who have committed felonies may be excluded. Planned Parenthood can challenge its exclusion from Medicaid through South Carolina’s administrative process, Gorsuch said.

The decision paves the way for other Republican-led states who may want to exclude Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson penned a dissent that was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

“At a minimum, it will deprive Medicaid recipients in South Carolina of their only meaningful way of enforcing a right that Congress has expressly granted to them,” she wrote.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, a Republican, previously argued that “taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize abortion providers who are in direct opposition to their beliefs.”

“Seven years ago, we took a stand to protect the sanctity of life and defend South Carolina’s authority and values – and today, we are finally victorious,” McMaster said Thursday in a statement after the ruling.

The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed our right to exclude abortion providers from receiving taxpayer dollars. Seven years ago, we took a stand to protect the sanctity of life and defend South Carolina's authority and values – and today, we are finally victorious. My statement: pic.twitter.com/N9fkoPpQ9v

— Gov. Henry McMaster (@henrymcmaster) June 26, 2025

South Carolina cited its own state law prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars for abortion. Federal law also prohibits Medicaid funds from paying for most but not all abortions — the funds are permitted in the cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger.

Planned Parenthood has two clinics in South Carolina, one in Charleston and one in Columbia.

The court’s decision is yet another loss for the pro-abortion lobby, which saw Roe vs. Wade overturned three years ago this week, nixing the supposed constitutional right to abortion.

Prolife leaders celebrated Thursday’s ruling.

“Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer-funded gravy train is swiftly coming to an end,” SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said.

“Its days of posing as a ‘trusted health care provider’ are over as the truth is exposed — most recently, by revelations of botched procedures, open sewage and other horrifying conditions at their facilities across America and the tragic death of yet another young woman following a late-term abortion,” she said.

Dannenfelser added that Planned Parenthood is more interested in “funneling millions into political activism and litigation.”

Meanwhile, Democrats were incensed.

“Make no mistake — Senate Republicans own the consequences of this loathsome MAGA Supreme Court decision. They packed our courts with extremists and they’re the chief architects of the dismal state of women’s health care in America,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement posted to X.