Washington, D.C. – Today, a six justice majority of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic that patients who rely on Medicaid for their healthcare cannot come to court to enforce the right to choose their own healthcare provider. The case threatens the health and wellbeing of people and their ability to receive essential care they need from their healthcare provider of choice: Planned Parenthood. 

Democracy Forward represented former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) senior officials, including former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Julie Edwards, the patient who tried to challenge South Carolina’s removal of Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid program. 

“Today, a majority of the Supreme Court has deprived people in the Medicaid program of the ability to go to court to enforce a right that Congress provided them: the right to choose their healthcare provider. This move is one of a series of attacks recently on the ability of the American people to access the courts to enforce their rights and, as the dissenting justices note, will result in ‘tangible harm to real people,’” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “For decades, Planned Parenthood has provided essential care to people across the nation. Despite this disappointment, our team at Democracy Forward will continue our work every day to enable the American people to defend their rights in courts, to enhance access to reproductive health care and oppose misinformation, to defend evidence-based policymaking, and to support the essential services Planned Parenthood and other trusted healthcare professionals provide to millions across the nation.”

In their brief, the former HHS senior officials drew on their extensive experience overseeing the Medicaid program to argue that the free choice of provider provision ensures that Medicaid patients like Julie Edwards are able, like everyone else, to choose their own doctor. The former officials explained that individual suits to vindicate this right are not just useful for proper enforcement of the free-choice-of provider provision; they are essential to ensuring that states comply with that requirement. The Supreme Court’s decision to the contrary will prevent Medicaid patients from coming to court, threatening to undermine their access to essential basic preventive services and family planning care and further put the lives and health of Americans in danger. 

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Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.