JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the latest attempt by Republican state officials to prevent taxpayer money from going to Planned Parenthood, citing a failure in the state’s legal appeal.
The Supreme Court’s decision affirms a judge’s ruling that a 2022 funding law violated the state constitution. The budget bill sought to prevent Medicaid health care dollars from going to Planned Parenthood because its subsidiaries performed abortions elsewhere. But the Supreme Court’s decision was based on procedural grounds, not on the merits of the claims.
The court said a judge blocked the provisions in the funding bill for two reasons: because they violated the state constitution’s requirement that legislation cover a single subject matter and because they violated equal protection rights. The Supreme Court said Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office failed to appeal the equal protection claim and should therefore stand. The court therefore ruled that there was no reason to consider the claim against one person.
Bailey’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Planned Parenthood said in a statement that the court reaffirmed the rights of patients to receive its services for things like cancer screenings and contraception.
“Time and time again, the courts have rejected politicians’ continued attempts to deprive patients of their health care by unconstitutionally kicking Planned Parenthood out of the Medicaid program,” the organization said in a joint statement from Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood. from the St. Louis and Southwest Missouri area, and Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains.
Missouri’s Republican-led legislature has been trying for years to prevent health care funding from going to Planned Parenthood because of its association with abortion. That’s still the case, even though Planned Parenthood no longer performs abortions in Missouri. A state law banning most abortions took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a nationwide right to abortion in June 2022.
Lawmakers were able to prevent money from going to Planned Parenthood in the 2019 budget year by forgoing some federal funding to prevent the clinics from being reimbursed when low-income patients went there for contraception, cancer screenings and other preventive concern. Missouri instead used state money to pay for these services.
But the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that lawmakers violated the state Constitution by making the policy change through the state budget instead of a separate bill, forcing the state to reimburse Planned Parenthood for health care provided to Medicaid patients .
Lawmakers have since been trying to reinstate the ban on funding for Planned Parenthood. A bill to implement such a ban, separate from the budget, faced Democratic opposition when it was debated in the Senate earlier this month.