States can block the country’s biggest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid money for health services such as contraception and cancer screenings.
The case rose to the Supreme Court from South Carolina. The Associated Press explains:
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, said Planned Parenthood should not get any taxpayer money. The budget bill backed by President Donald Trump in Congress would also cut Medicaid money for the group. That could force the closure of about 200 centers, most of them in states where abortion is legal, Planned Parenthood has said.
Several news outlets have mentioned the impact that this decision will have on rural healthcare. NPR brings us this:
Planned Parenthood's president and CEO, Alexis McGill Johnson, in an interview with NPR, said the decision would have widespread ramifications and would allow seventeen states to strip Planned Parenthood clinics of the ability to provide non-abortion medical services to rural and low income people. (emphasis added)
The story further quotes Johnson:
It's a dark time [when] a health center has to close, any time a patient is not able to get the care that they need. That is a dark time because we can provide that care for our nation's most vulnerable.
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