Judge Halts South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s Order Banning Planned Parenthood Taxpayer Funding

A federal judge has temporarily halted an executive order delivered by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster that banned abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid funds.

U.S. District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis, an Obama appointee, granted a temporary injunction at the request of Planned Parenthood that blocks the Republican governor’s executive order until the court rules on the abortion business’s lawsuit.

“Today’s ruling demonstrates that playing political games with the health and dignity of women and families should not have any place in the everyday lives of South Carolinians,” said Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, according to the Post and Courier. 

“The health services Planned Parenthood South Atlantic provides,” she added, “are fundamental to the state’s health care safety net, and we look forward to continuing to provide a full range of life-saving preventive health care to anyone who walks through our doors, no matter their income or insurance status.”

Brian Symmes, a spokesperson for McMaster, said the governor “will continue to do all that he can to make sure no taxpayer dollars either directly or indirectly subsidize abortions in South Carolina.”

McMaster has also requested permission from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to cut off abortion providers in his state from Medicaid funding.

Symmes said the governor “will continue to fight until every South Carolinian can know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that their taxpayer dollars are not being used to perform abortion.”

In July, when McMaster issued his order banning abortion providers from Medicaid funds, he said, “The preservation of life is the ultimate right to be protected and necessarily includes the life of unborn children” and that “the payment of taxpayer funds to abortion clinics, for any purpose, results in the subsidy of abortion and the denial of the right to life.”

In his order, McMaster said:

Although the state should not contract with abortion clinics for family planning services, the state also should not deny South Carolinians’ access to necessary medical care and important women’s health and family planning services, which are provided by a variety of other non-governmental entities and governmental agencies.

Federally qualified healthcare facilities in South Carolina that accept Medicaid as payment and provide more expansive services than abortion clinics can be accessed at getyourcare.org.

McMaster also ordered the state’s health agency to use funds left over from last year’s budget for healthcare services for low-income individuals in South Carolina. The governor vetoed nearly $16 million for low-income people from the coming year’s budget to cut Planned Parenthood’s funding. With the excess funds from last year’s budget, he then provided monies for low-income services without funding abortion clinics.