(PatrioticPost.Com)- Almost 150 members of Congress have signed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to take up a case that would allow states to exclude Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds.
The group, consisting of 108 House of Representatives members and 29 Senators, said they back a 2018 executive order issued by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster that disqualified abortion facilities from being providers of Medicaid in the state.
Following that order, Planned Parenthood sued and received a preliminary injunction. That injunction was upheld by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. The state of South Carolina appealed that decision up to the highest court in the nation.
The members of Congress announced last week they filed a brief backing South Carolina in this fight. In filing the brief, South Carolina Representative Jeff Duncan announced:
“States have the right to deem their own Medicaid providers, and I stand with Governor McMaster’s lawful decision to ensure public funds don’t go to organizations that perform abortions, like Planned Parenthood. This is a battle on two fronts — a fight for the unborn and the conscience of taxpayers, and a fight for states’ authority to decide which providers qualify for funds. I’m hopeful the Supreme Court will hear this consequential case.”
Duncan was joined by fellow South Carolina Representative Ralph Norman, who said:
“While it’s illegal to use Medicaid dollars to end a child’s life through abortion, the fact remains that a percentage of every Medicaid reimbursement for an approved service obviously goes towards the provider’s overhead. This is not difficult to understand. For Planned Parenthood, that means Medicaid reimbursements for approved services would, in part, support the same overhead and broader operational costs that makes their life-ending abortion ‘services’ possible.”
Pro-abortion advocates say that these tax dollars that the facilities receive do not directly fund and/or support abortions. They say that it only supports other services the clinics administer, which are essential services for the community.
Pro-life advocates say that even if those funds do go directly to those other services the clinics provide, they still in an indirect way support abortions — which is why they believe states should be able to not make them Medicaid providers.
A 2015 study conducted by Duke University actually found that taxpayer money covered nearly 25% of abortion costs throughout the country. That is certainly a statistic the pro-lifers will use in their arguments.
That being said, there are many more facilities in the United States that provide other legitimate services to women. In South Carolina, for example, there were 268 rural health clinics or health centers that were federally qualified as of 2015, compared to only two Planned Parenthood facilities. There are still only two of those facilities in the state today.
With the Congress members filing their supportive brief only last week, it is still up in the air as to whether the Supreme Court will even decide to hear their case. If they do, it’ll be one that could have huge long-term effects on women’s health centers throughout the country.
