Rep Chris Smith: States shouldn’t have to fund abortions through Medicaid

CV NEWS FEED // Representative Chris Smith, R-N.J., supported South Carolina’s right to declare abortion clinics ineligible to receive Medicaid after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments April 2 in Medina v. Planned Parenthood.

In 2018, South Carolina declared that abortion clinics are not eligible to receive Medicaid funding due to their narrow range of services and abortion activities, according to an April 2 press release from Smith’s office. Planned Parenthood sued the state, and Smith has joined four congressional amicus briefs since 2020 in support of South Carolina.

The most recent brief from this year, Smith explained, offered a policy perspective for the case.

“It showed that §1983 of the Medicaid Act does not provide Medicaid recipients with a privately enforceable right,” Smith stated. “Congress gave states the power to decide which providers will be qualified to offer services. Failure to recognize this fact would increase litigation, create budgetary uncertainty, and stifle the innovation Congress intended to offer the states.”

His website states that Medicaid reimbursements are Planned Parenthood’s largest source of federal funding. Over the past three years, Medicaid has provided $1.5 billion in reimbursements to Planned Parenthood. 

“Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize through Medicaid an industry that regards the precious life of an unborn child as analogous to a tumor to be excised or a disease to be vanquished,” Smith said in the release. “States should be able to invest in real health care options, including for women who need help and their families.”