Abortion

Supreme Court Potentially Ends Six Year Assault On Planned Parenthood

Written by SK Ashby

Congressional Republicans finally gave up after losing control of the House in 2018, but Republicans in control of various state houses never stopped trying to defund Planned Parenthood by excluding the provider from their Medicaid programs following the fake 'baby body parts' hoax.

Every lower federal court that has looked at similar cases has ultimately sided with Planned Parenthood and now, for the third time, the Supreme Court has allowed a lower court ruling to remain in place by refusing to consider South Carolina's assault on Planned Parenthood.

The case stems from South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s 2018 executive order barring enrollees of Medicaid, the low-income health insurance program, from receiving routine, non-abortion care from health care providers who also perform abortions. Planned Parenthood sued to block the Republican governor's order, and two lower federal courts agreed that the policy violated Medicaid enrollees’ rights to seek care from any qualified provider they choose. The state appealed to the Supreme Court earlier this year, arguing that it should have right to determine which providers are “qualified” to treat Medicaid patients.

Although funding for Planned Parenthood is probably safe for at least a few years now, the court's political makeup is about to change with the addition of Trump's latest nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. Cases that are narrowly rejected or decided by one vote could swing the other direction under a 6 to 3 conservative majority court and it's just a matter of time before Republicans come up with another scheme to attack Planned Parenthood.

The only surefire way to protect Planned Parenthood and abortion and even gay marriage, among many other things, is to take control of the government. And not just the federal government.

Replacing Trump with Joe Biden is obviously the most important thing, but electing Democrats at the state and local level is also important. Electing more Democrats to more state houses means cases like this one will never reach the Supreme Court to begin with. A Democratic attorney general or governor wouldn't launch these attacks in the first place.

Amy Coney Barrett could be a deciding vote to finally kill the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, and that lawsuit was brought by a group of Republican attorneys general. Replace them and there's no lawsuit.