Posted on 12/10/2018 8:34:47 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The dispute did not involve abortion, but rather a legal battle over whether states could block Medicaid patients' access to other health services.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left lower court victories intact for Planned Parenthood in a legal battle with states over access by Medicaid patients to the group's services.
The dispute did not involve abortion, but the action by the justices keeps a hot-button political issue off the docket. Three of the court's conservatives said the court should have taken the case.
After an anti-abortion group released videos in 2015 that purported to show officials from Planned Parenthood talking about selling fetal tissue, several states immediately terminated Medicaid provider agreements with the group's affiliates. The videos were largely discredited, but the states involved said they found the allegations troubling.
Medicaid patients in Kansas and Louisiana, two of the states that took action against Planned Parenthood, claimed the states violated Medicaid's requirement that patients must be free to seek their health care from any qualified and willing provider. They sued, and lower federal courts found in their favor, entering injunctions that ordered those states to lift their bans.
In declining to take up the states' appeals, the Supreme Court's action on Monday leaves those lower court victories for the Medicaid patients in place.
Planned Parenthood offers Medicaid patients vaccines, wellness examinations, screening for breast and cervical cancer, contraception services and pregnancy testing. But abortion is not offered, because federal funds cannot pay for them except in cases of rape, incest or life endangerment. The Kansas affiliate said it provides "essential medical care for hundreds of low-income Kansans each year."
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
I guess it is completely lost on this writer that Planned Parenthood in fact does NOT offer many of these screenings and that money if fungible - you fund one thing they can allocate their general funds for other purposes.
More fake news.
More fake Kavanaugh.
And if they defunded PP this year, how would the next confirmation fight go? The justices probably have a fairly accurate picture of how much longer Ginsberg will last, and when the next confirmation circus will likely be.
Plus with Democrats now controlling the House, it would be a futile act.
i dont see how pulling out all the stops to save the unborn from murder could ever be considered futile.
How dare those who would abort children make laws for the living.
“Three of the court’s conservatives said the court should have taken the case.”
Which ones?
Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch.
From Reuters: “At least four justices must vote to grant review for the court to hear an appeal. Along with the four liberal justices, Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts - the court’s two other conservative justices - opposed taking up the matter.”
Kavanaugh and Roberts seem to be proving we do NOT have a conservative or originalist majority on the Supreme Court.
The MSM calls Kavanaugh and Roberts “conservative”, but it is using the term liberally.
The issue hasn't been decided yet. The Eighth Circuit ruled Arkansas could deny Medicaid funding to PP.
So, the Supreme Court still may take up the issue.
That a state cannot cut off access to a provider is rather a good precedent. Let us see going forward.
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