Daily Caller: Showdown Over Planned Parenthood Funding Lands At Supreme Court Amid Abortion Provider’s Financial Struggles

This article was written by Katelynn Richardson and published in the Daily Caller.

The Supreme Court is set to consider on Wednesday whether states can restrict Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid dollars.

The case, which stems from South Carolina’s effort in 2018 to end Planned Parenthood’s participation in its Medicaid program, could clear the way for more states to eliminate taxpayer funding for the abortion provider as it faces mounting financial struggles.

“All the money that Planned Parenthood gets from the South Carolina Medicaid program to pay for overhead are monies that it can then use to perform more abortions,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel John Bursch, who will be arguing the case on the state’s behalf, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The people of South Carolina don’t want to subsidize an abortion provider, just as most people around the country do not.”

Planned Parenthood claims the state violated the free-choice-of provider provision in the Medicaid Act. South Carolina argues the provision doesn’t give them grounds to sue.

A New York Times investigation into Planned Parenthood in February exposed its poor quality of care, highlighting instances of botched abortions and what one former staff member called a “conveyor belt” approach to treating patients that stems from pressure to bring in more revenue. Former Planned Parenthood nurse Grace Larson told the NYT it was not uncommon for patients to be prepared for the wrong procedure, noting employees sometimes even administered the wrong or expired medications.

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