COLOMBIA – South Carolina’s effort to take out Planned Parenthood funding is not over, even after the United States Supreme Court in October rejected the state’s request to reinstate its Medicaid money block to the abortion provider.
State officials are now asking the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals for the United States to take the case, which has been tied to the courts since Republican Governor Henry McMaster tried to remove abortion providers from the state’s Medicaid network in July 2018.
“We are deeply disappointed that the state continues to waste valuable time and resources advocating for a flagrantly unconstitutional law, especially as Southern Carolinians continue to struggle with the impact of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and rising unemployment,” said Jenny, Planned Parenthood CEO South Atlantic Black wrote in an emailed statement. “The McMaster administration’s continued attempt to block Medicaid patients’ access to basic health care at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic is shameful.”
A McMaster spokesman referred questions to the state Department of Health and Human Services. Agency spokesman Jeff Leieritz said DHHS is filing the appeal because “the governor’s administration as a whole has decided that taxpayer funds in South Carolina should not be used to support abortion.”
Courts handled McMaster’s loss-after-loss administration as it tried to block the flow of tax dollars to Planned Parenthood.
More recently, in a Dec. 14 decision, federal judge Mary Geiger Lewis permanently blocked the state from excluding planned Parenthood from its Medicaid network.
The Medicaid payments in question do not fund abortions at Planned Parenthood’s two South Carolina clinics. They pay for birth control, antenatal care and pelvic exams for the poor in South Carolina. But McMaster and other opponents of abortion see cutting government funding for clinics as a moral imperative.
The legal campaign so far has cost state taxpayers $ 64,000, according to DHHS. The agency hired Jolley Law Group, a Columbia boutique company with expertise in health law, to argue its case.
The court documents indicate that planned paternity, if successful, will seek the state to pay its attorney fees as well.
Follow Joseph Cranney on Twitter @joey_cranney.