News broke yesterday on another US Supreme Court decision that triggered the baby-killing left. The High Court ruled that the Medicaid laws’ “any qualified provider” clause did not prohibit states from banning the use of Medicaid funds for (in this case) Planned Parenthood.
The majority opinion in the 6–3 decision in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch. The new ruling reverses a federal appeals court decision that blocked South Carolina from excluding Planned Parenthood from the program.
The court majority held that federal law does not permit health care providers or patients to sue a state if it runs afoul of a federal law requiring that Medicaid patients be allowed to use their preferred provider.
Without looking, I suspect MovOn.org has already issued a petition to list build and fundraise on the outrage they’ve manufactured. It’s the business model, and they are good at it. Look what Trump’s right-wing court did. Robbing women of health choices. Blah Blah Blah. It’s a bunch of hooey, but Angry White Liberal Women will drop a few dimes for the cause, which is to keep MoveOn’s staff funded, which is a bit granular, but then so is the truth about Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.
The issue was whether “the Medicaid Act’s any-qualified-provider provision unambiguously confers a private right upon a Medicaid beneficiary to choose a specific provider,” according to the June 2024 petition.
The petitioner was on Medicaid and preferred Planned Parenthood for “reproductive health services.” South Carolina said you can’t use them for that. The US Supreme Court has ruled that, as written, states are beholden to the Federal Government, not individual Medicaid recipients, with a few enumerated exceptions.
To continue receiving federal funding, the Medicaid Act says, a State need only “comply substantially” with the any qualified-provider mandate. §1396c. And, as this Court
recognized in Gonzaga, that focus on “‘aggregate’” compliance suggests that a statute addresses a State’s obligations to the federal government, not the rights “‘of any particular person.’”
If Congress had intended otherwise, it would have included that in the law.
Triggered Proglodytes won’t see it that way, nor did the coven of liberal witches on the Court. It is the purpose of this branch to reinterpret what Congress does to match their worldview, especially where abortion providers are involved.
Imagine how they’d feel if California had passed a law requiring Planned Parenthood to advertise Pregnancy Care Centers. Suppose it mandated that employees must tell patients of these options. Turnabout is never fair play, and reading laws as written isn’t either.
The case wasn’t even about abortion, nor was the decision. The question was whether the law required states to bend the knee to every Medicare recipient on the basis of the qualified provider provision. The Decision explains why this does not apply to any provider unless defined explicitly in the law.
But the Left will make it about abortion even though that issue isn’t moving votes at election time like it used to.
