WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that 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 6-3 opinion authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by the rest of the court’s conservatives was not directly about abortion, but it comes as Republicans back a wider push across the country to defund the organization. It closes off Planned Parenthood’s primary court path to keeping Medicaid funding in place: lawsuits from patients.
While Medicaid law allows people choose their own provider, it doesn’t make that a right enforceable in court, the justices found.
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