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Medina Ruling and Budget Bill Threaten Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid Funding

The Senate parliamentarian has allowed a one-year ban on federal Medicaid support for the organization to remain in the budget reconciliation bill.

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Planned Parenthood signage in Inglewood, California, on May 16, 2023.

Overview

  • In a 6-3 decision in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, the Supreme Court ruled that Medicaid recipients lack a federal right to sue states for excluding providers from their Medicaid programs.
  • Justice Neil Gorsuch’s majority opinion held that Section 1983 does not authorize private lawsuits over provider choice, a ruling that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from, warning it undermines Reconstruction-era civil rights protections.
  • Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough approved a one-year prohibition on Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood after Republicans narrowed a proposed ten-year ban in the Senate’s pending budget bill.
  • These parallel judicial and legislative actions give states broad authority to exclude Planned Parenthood and potentially other politically disfavored providers—such as those offering contraception, IVF, gender-affirming care or HIV treatment—from Medicaid coverage.
  • Planned Parenthood warns that losing Medicaid funding could force the closure of nearly 200 clinics and deprive more than 1.1 million low-income patients of essential reproductive and preventive services.