While Democrats have shied away from talking about abortion since the 2024 presidential election, it is still an issue Republicans are rallying around.
Supreme Court agrees that South Carolina can defund Planned Parenthood
In the 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court said that Medicaid patients cannot sue over the right to choose their own doctor.
Almost three years to the day since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the justices have once again made a decision that will limit access to reproductive care. This time, they’re explicitly coming after Planned Parenthood.
On Thursday, June 26, the Supreme Court ruled in a decision that could allow states to keep Medicaid dollars from the organization. In the 6-3 ruling, the justices determined that individuals could not sue to choose their health care provider after a patient sued South Carolina to receive reproductive care from Planned Parenthood.
By making this decision, the courts are potentially shutting Planned Parenthood out of millions of dollars that would go to necessary health care options like birth control, cancer screenings and testing for sexually transmitted infections.
It’s a ruling that, like Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pointed out in her dissent, is going to harm people who rely on Planned Parenthood for their care.
The plan was always to end abortion in every state
It’s just another instance of conservatives ignoring the realities of women’s health care in favor of their beliefs, and a reminder that abortion continues to be a Republican target. It’s also a reminder that we’ll be living in this dystopian health care nightmare for a very, very long time.
While Democrats have shied away from talking about abortion since the 2024 presidential election, it is still an issue Republicans are rallying around. They were never going to be satisfied with simply returning abortion rights back to the states, the plan was always to eradicate the health care procedure nationwide.
In May, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered the Food and Drug Administration to review mifepristone, an abortion medication, because of a study from a conservative think tank that relies on flawed data.
The majority of abortions in 2023 were medication abortions. If mifepristone were suddenly taken off the market, it would have huge ramifications for patients across the country.
Planned Parenthood was also already struggling after President Donald Trump froze federal funding to more than 100 clinics earlier this year. It has led clinics across the country to shut down. His One Big Beautiful Bill Act also would block Medicaid patients from seeking care at Planned Parenthood, which could lead to more closures.
None of this is happening in a vacuum. All of these Republican attacks amount to a nationwide assault on abortion rights, no matter where one is located in the country.
Millions of people could soon lose access to the care they need because of the Republican agenda.
Abortion bans aren’t working. Defunding Planned Parenthood won’t change that.
Despite these targeted attacks on abortion, the procedure hasn’t become less popular in the years following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. In 2024, there was actually an increase in abortions, with a quarter of those procedures occurring via telehealth for medication.
Public opinion on abortion has remained steady, with Pew Research Center reporting that 63% of Americans supported abortion in all or most cases in 2024.
Clearly, Republican leaders are only listening to a small subset of their constituency when they decide to go after Planned Parenthood. They do not listen to the millions of people who have benefited from the wide range of services that the organization provides. Instead, they would rather spread falsehoods about abortion and how it is funded. They will not be happy until abortions are nearly impossible to obtain, even when someone’s life is at risk.
The Supreme Court’s latest cruel decision shows that we are still living with the long-term repercussions of having Trump nominate three justices to the bench. And this is just the beginning.
It’s clear nothing is going to stop Republicans from attacking Planned Parenthood until it’s unable to function because of a lack of government funding. It’s shameful that they continue to put a political agenda ahead of the health care needs of women. It’s also not changing anytime soon.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter: @sara__pequeno
