Press Release  AG Campbell Issues Statement On Supreme Court Decision In Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic

BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell issued the following statement in response to today’s ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, which held that unfriendly states maintain a largely unreviewable power to discriminate against certain health care providers. This decision means many Medicaid recipients may not be able to access their first choice of coverage for reproductive care. 

"Choosing a healthcare provider should be left to a patient and should not be subject to government or political interference. While today’s decision will not affect reproductive choice or the delivery of health care in Massachusetts, it does allow other states to play politics with healthcare, including by penalizing reproductive health care providers. Today more than ever, patients need better access to health care and those who provide care need stronger protections from an increasingly weaponized political system," said AG Campbell.

ON BACKGROUND:

• AG Campbell led a coalition of 17 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm a lower court’s decision recognizing Medicaid recipients’ individual, judicially enforceable right to receive care from the qualified providers of their choice, including Planned Parenthood.
• Medicaid recipients must be able to access a variety of providers, including reproductive health care providers, for the Medicaid program to work efficiently. 
• In Massachusetts, 27% of the patients seen by Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts for non-abortion-related care in 2024 were Medicaid recipients.

In today’s decision, the Supreme Court reversed a previous ruling by the Fourth Circuit to allow a private individual to sue to enforce her right to receive reproductive care covered by Medicaid from the provider of her choice.  

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