“If we haven’t won, we’re not done!” For over five hours on April 2, allies and advocates for Planned Parenthood and reproductive justice gathered outside the Supreme Court from across the country, echoing various chants and hearing from an impressive array of speakers. This demonstration intentionally coincided with oral arguments in the Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic case, which is challenging whether recipients of Medicaid can sue their state to enforce their right to choose their healthcare provider.
Medicaid is a government-funded social service program that provides medical health insurance for eligible participants, typically those who are low-income, disabled, or pregnant. Lower courts have already ruled that Planned Parenthood is a medically qualified and willing provider, so it may not be excluded from South Carolina’s Medicaid program. Additionally, abortions are usually not covered by Medicaid funding.
Turning from side to side, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-7) declared, “Let me say this on the left and on the right: the law is on our side.”
Supporters of Planned Parenthood, reproductive justice, and patients’ rights gathered in front of the Supreme Court building. Many organizations were represented, including Women’s March, the ACLU, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, the National Council for Jewish Women, the Human Rights Campaign, Popular Democracy, the Institute for Policy Studies, Repairers of the Breach, SEIU Committee of Interns and Residents, In Our Own Voice and more.
Sheila Katz, CEO of the National Council for Jewish Women, remarked that “the well-being of a person comes before ritual, before tradition, before anything.”
A brass septet played loud, upbeat music, battling with the music from the counter-protesters as attendees arrived in advance of the rally. Patients and speakers from Planned Parenthood’s partner organizations emphasized the ongoing attacks on Medicaid, the systemic failures of the American healthcare system and the importance of Planned Parenthood amidst these issues. Protesters also heard from Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX-7), Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-7), Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA-28), Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX-16), Rep. Kelly Morrison (D-MN-3), Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR-3) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA).
Counter-protesters in support of the conservative Christian legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom also gathered to protest abortion and Planned Parenthood. A live band played Christian music and one person held up a sign showing a cartoonish skeleton of a fetus. The state of South Carolina’s argument, argued by Alliance Defending Freedom and backed by the Trump administration, is that the law governing Medicaid does not explicitly use language that creates a patient’s right to choose their healthcare provider.
As one of the pro-abortion speakers stated, “what the government is saying is that if you rely on the government for healthcare, you deserve less.”
“Our liberations are intertwined…when they come for one of us, they are coming for all of us,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign. As a pregnant queer woman, Robinson’s existence underscores her important message on the connection between LGBTQ+ rights and bodily autonomy.
While many speakers and protesters focused on abortion, others provided a reminder that Planned Parenthood offers a variety of services, including birth control, cancer screenings and STI testing. These services are all at risk as of April 1, when the Trump administration began withholding Title X family planning funding from Planned Parenthood providers.
Another argument against patients’ choice is that taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize abortion. According to a speaker from Repairers of the Breach, an organization of activists, artists, and interfaith leaders promoting a moral policy agenda, “This is not budgeting. This is cruelty.”
News outlets have conflicting predictions for the justices’ June decision in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, with NPR reporting that it is difficult to tell where the justices stand, The Washington Post publishing that the justices are likely to side with Planned Parenthood and Reuters noting that the Court’s 6-3 majority creates a conservative leaning. If the Court sides with South Carolina, Amy Friedrich-Karnik from Guttmacher Institute writes that it will constitute “an attack on people with low incomes” and their ability to access reproductive healthcare, an effect that could spread across the nation.
The last speaker, Planned Parenthood President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson, contextualized the attacks on Medicaid and Planned Parenthood in the broader scope of our political landscape: “Planned Parenthood providers are operating on the front lines of fascism…All of healthcare is on the line, and this is what tyranny looks like.”
