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The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to Planned Parenthood on Thursday, setting the stage for sovereign states to sever the massive abortion provider from the Medicaid program.
The court ruled 6-3 that Medicaid patients do not have the right to sue state officials for denying access to specific healthcare providers (Medina v. Planned Parenthood). This comes amid the question of whether federal law can guarantee patients access to a specific provider with state taxpayer money. In this case, the debate started in earnest in 2018, per the decision, when South Carolina determined to cut Planned Parenthood from its state Medicaid program.
“Deciding whether to permit private enforcement poses delicate policy questions involving competing costs and benefits—decisions for elected representatives, not judges,” wrote Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch for the majority opinion.
He also noted that while private individuals can sue “state actors who violate their ‘rights’ under the federal ‘Constitution and law,’ federal statutes do not always “confer” enforceable rights.
Per Politico:
“The court’s conservative majority ruled that while the Medicaid statute guarantees beneficiaries the ability to see any qualified provider that is willing to participate in Medicaid, federal law doesn’t grant a legal right to sue if a state denies access to certain providers.”
In the majority opinion, Gorsuch discussed the legitimacy of such a perceived right in the context of Medicaid funding. In other words, while the ability to access participating providers may be protected, the guarantee for individuals to sue a state that denies such access is not guaranteed. Here, the debate between federal and state law comes into heavy play.
“After all, the decision whether to let private plaintiffs enforce a new statutory right poses delicate questions of public policy. 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,” Gorsuch wrote.
States like Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri have already moved to cut Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs, and President Trump’s proposed “One Big Beautiful Bill” includes eliminating Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, as well, according to Axios. This decision from the Supreme Court may embolden other states to do the same.
Justices Jackson, Sotomayor, and Kagan – the court’s “left” judges – dissented in the opinion.
