Pro-Life Lawyers Ask Supreme Court: Should Taxpayers Be Forced to Fund Planned Parenthood?

WASHINGTON – Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood could be on the chopping block. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in a case involving the abortion giant and the state of South Carolina. The question at hand: Does a state have the power to determine where Medicaid dollars can and cannot be used? 

Outside the court, demonstrators, both pro-life and pro-abortion, rallied and held up signs. Pro-life demonstrators also sang Christian worship music. 

Inside, lawyers made their cases to the justices in Medina v Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. 

The question at hand: Does a state have the power to determine where Medicaid dollars can and cannot be used? 

Medina and South Carolina say yes because not allowing the state that authority infringes on state's rights. 

In its lawsuit, Planned Parenthood says patients should have the right to choose where they go for Medicaid-covered "family planning" services. Their list cites breast and cervical cancer screenings, birth control, and testing and treatment for STDs. It does not, however, list abortion. 

"Planned Parenthood is the abortion giant in the nation," Sarah Parshall Perry with the Heritage Foundation explained in an interview with CBN News. "While is does provide minuscule services to the effect of mammograms or ultrasounds or high blood pressure checks, we know that 80 percent plus of the work that it does is in the abortion industry." 

Perry says all nine justices are considered textualists, which will likely determine how they weigh this case. 

"So every one of them is going to look to the plain language of the Medicaid Act, something that clearly prohibits abortion and does leave to the states, at their discretion, determination of what constitutes a qualified provider of any medical service in the state," said Perry. 

And indeed, one of the biggest sticking points in court came over the word "right" and if an individual has the "right" to choose a provider. 

The Alliance Defending Freedom, representing Medina and South Carolina, argued the word "right" does not apply in this case. 

The three liberal leaning justices pushed back on that. 

A decision in this case is expected in June. A ruling in favor of Medina and South Carolina would open the gates for other states to follow suit and deny Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. 

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