Wednesday federal court ruling against Planned Parenthood has been subsumed by all things Trump this week, but it needs to be highlighted again. In a radical departure from court precedent, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state of Arkansas could prevent Medicaid enrollees from getting health care at Planned Parenthood clinics. This is in conflict with the federal Medicaid statute as well as every other federal court's ruling, and that's where it's dangerous writes Mother Jones' Hannah Levintov.
“This is a surprising decision,” says Mara Gandal-Powers, senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center. “This is not where the other circuits have come out on this issue, and it’s certainly not what the Medicaid law intends or says.”
The court’s ruling deviates from decisions made in every other case where state efforts to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood have been brought before a federal court, including decisions issued by the 5th, 7th, and 9th circuits as well as numerous district courts. All have ruled against state’s efforts to withhold Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood.
“The 8th Circuit is out there on this,” Gandal-Powers says. […]
“The 5th Circuit is not necessarily a friend to women or Planned Parenthood,” Gandal-Powers, says. “But even they ruled in the opposite way from the 8th Circuit” in September 2016, when the 5th Circuit unanimously blocked an attempt by Louisiana to terminate the state’s Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood. The court ruled that the patients who had brought the lawsuit “would otherwise be denied…the legal right to the qualified provider of their choice.”
The ruling undermines individual rights, Medicaid, and Planned Parenthood. Federal Medicaid statue is completely unambiguous on the right of Medicaid recipients to see the qualified provider of their choice making this decision really radical and completely divergent. Which seems to be the point. Wednesday's decision created a circuit split—a division between the federal circuit courts raising a a statutory conflict that the U.S. Supreme Court might want to resolve. In fact, it seems that that might just be the point for the judges on the 8th circuit—forcing this to go the Supreme Court. Planned Parenthood clinics in Fayetteville and Little Rock will continue to see Medicaid patients, until Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson actually implements the ruling by yanking funds. They are considering their legal path forward in contesting the decision.
No mistake, though, this is just what Republicans have been hoping for—another avenue of attack on women's reproductive health and rights advancing to the Supreme Court. It's why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell led the obstruction of as many of President Barack Obama's judicial nominees as he could. It's why he conducted the unprecedented blockade against Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. It's why he ended the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees for Trump's pick, Neil Gorsuch. This is the long game they are playing. It's why they will be sticking with Trump to the bitter end.