Sarah Moy | Having Your Healthcare and Paying For It Too: The Use of Federal Funds at Planned Parenthood

BACKGROUND

On December 14, 2017, as then-President Obama prepared to leave office, he issued a rule prohibiting states from withholding federal family-planning funds from health clinics that perform abortions, such as Planned Parenthood.  Four months later, on April 13, 2017, President Trump signed a bill reversing that rule.  These actions reflect an ongoing battle over funding for Planned Parenthood and similar clinics.

THE SPLIT

Following the release of controversial video footage in 2015, which purported to show Planned Parenthood officials trying to sell fetal tissue for profit, the Arkansas Department of Human Services terminated its Medicaid provider agreements with Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma.  Three Jane Does—Planned Parenthood patients—sued the Director of the Department under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the Department violated their federal right to choose any “qualified” provider under the Medicaid Act.  The district court entered an injunction preventing DHS from suspending payments for services rendered to a class of Medicaid beneficiaries.  In Does v. Gillespie, the Eighth Circuit vacated the injunction on August 16, 2017.  It held that § 23(A) of the Medicaid Act does not create an enforceable right for patients to receive services from any “qualified” provider, and found three significant difficulties with such a contention.  First, it found that the Act is “two steps removed from the interests of the patients” seeking services from a provider through Medicaid:

“A statute that speaks to the government official who will regulate the recipient of federal funding ‘does not confer the sort of ‘individual entitlement’ that is enforceable under § 1983.’…Even where a subsidiary provision includes mandatory language that ultimately benefits individuals, a statute phrased as a directive to a federal agency typically does not confer enforceable federal rights on the individuals.”

Second, the Eighth Circuit found that it could reasonably conclude that Congress did not intend to create such an enforceable right under § 1983 because through the withholding of federal funds, Congress provided another means of enforcing a state’s compliance.  Third, the Eighth Circuit held that “statutes with an ‘aggregate’ focus do not give rise to individual rights.”

The Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits disagree.  All have held that there is a right of action for enforcement of the Medicaid Act’s choice-of-provider provision.  The Seventh Circuit held in Planned Parenthood of Indiana, Inc. v. Commissioner of the Indiana State Department of Health(2012) that § 23(a) of the Medicaid Act “is individual-rights language, stated in mandatory terms.”  It continued:

“Although Indiana has broad authority to exclude unqualified providers from its Medicaid program, the State does not have plenary authority to exclude a class of providers for any reason—more particularly, for a reason unrelated to provider qualifications. In this context, ‘qualified’ means fit to provide the necessary medical services—that is, capable of performing the needed medical services in a professionally competent, safe, legal, and ethical manner. The defunding law excludes Planned Parenthood from Medicaid for a reason unrelated to its fitness to provide medical services, violating its patients’ statutory right to obtain medical care from the qualified provider of their choice.”

The Ninth Circuit agreed with the Seventh Circuit in Planned Parenthood Arizona Inc. v. Betlach (2013).  Notably, it found it “evident” that “Congress intended the free-choice-of-provider requirement to create an individual right.”

LOOKING FORWARD 

Whether there is an individual right to enforce the provision of the Medicaid Act allowing a patient’s choice of any “qualified” provider under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 is an issue ripe for review by the Supreme Court.  Given the Trump administration’s stance on women’s healthcare, including the rollback of President Obama’s last effort to safeguard federal family-planning funds for Planned Parenthood and similar clinics, this is a highly contentious and controversial issue.

Planned Parenthood is a politically, religiously, and emotionally charged subject in the U.S. culture war, and is often a partisan matter.  In 2012, the Obama administration filed an amicus brief in support of the organization in Planned Parenthood of Indiana.  The Trump administration’s differing position, combined with the addition of Justice Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, make this an even more prominent issue.  The dissent Justice Gorsuch wrote in Planned Parenthood Association v. Herbert (10th Cir. 2016) leave many “freedom of choice” supporters fearful of the accessibility of women’s healthcare options in the future.