John Bursch, senior counsel and the vice president of appellate advocacy at Alliance Defending Freedom, who argued the South Carolina case before the Court, said in response to the ruling today:
States should be free to fund real, comprehensive care and exclude organizations like Planned Parenthood that profit off abortion and distribute dangerous gender-transition drugs to minors. The American people don’t want their tax dollars propping up the abortion industry. The Supreme Court rightly restored the ability of states like South Carolina to steward limited public resources to best serve their citizens. We also thank South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and his administration for persevering through many years of legal battles to achieve this victory.”
For further background, 17 states have attempted to enact laws that would limit or prohibit tax-payer dollars going toward Planned Parenthood, yet they end up in long, expensive, and tireless litigation. But today SCOTUS said (in the majority opinion): “[P]rivate enforcement does not always benefit the public, not least because it requires States to divert money and attention away from social services and toward litigation. And balancing those costs and benefits poses a question of public policy that, under our system of government, only Congress may answer.”
Kristen Waggoner, president of ADF, posted on X:
Carolyn McDonnell, litigation counsel at Americans United for Life, said via e-mail:
The Supreme Court’s decision in Medina gives a legal roadmap for pro-life states to decertify abortion businesses as Medicaid providers. Though the battle was held in the courts, the Medina decision also is a political and cultural victory, affirming that states may direct public funds into authentic women’s health care rather than subsidizing elective abortion.
Matt Britton, general counsel at the Institute for Law and Justice and a board member of 40 Days for Life, said in an e-mail:
Today’s ruling by the United States Supreme Court in Medina v. Planned Parenthood is a huge win not just for the great State of South Carolina but for the pro-life movement and frankly for all Americans. While seemingly decided on technical and procedural grounds, the Supreme Court’s righteous decision is a giant rebuke to the abortion industry’s absurd, unholy, and unlawful rally cry that “abortion must be available on demand, at any time, for any reason, to anyone, and paid for by tax dollars.”
South Carolina and the other states are now free to end the illegal funding of abortion by tax dollars, paving the way to a complete defunding of Planned Parenthood. 40 Days for Life has stood, prayed and fasted with countless thousands of the faithful across South Carolina, for decades — it is beautiful to see the fruit of that prayer and we look forward to the end of abortion, the restoration of right reason, and the protection of the most vulnerable.