Planned Parenthood Arizona Inc v. Tom Betlach

An Arizona statute bars patients eligible for the state’s Medicaid program from obtaining covered family planning services through health care providers who perform abortions in cases other than medical necessity, rape, or incest. See Ariz.Rev. Stat. § 35-196.05(B). Such abortions are already ineligible for Medicaid coverage and so must be paid for with private funds. The Arizona law extends the ineligibility to non-abortion services such as gynecological exams and cancer screenings unless the patient’s provider agrees to stop performing privately funded elective abortions.

Before the Arizona law could go into effect, Planned Parenthood of Arizona and several individual plaintiffs filed this lawsuit challenging the Arizona law as a violation of the federal Medicaid Act. That Act provides that state Medicaid programs must allow Medicaid recipients to obtain care from “any [provider] qualified to perform the service or services required,” and that enrollment in a Medicaid managed-care plan “shall not restrict the choice of the qualified [provider] from whom the individual may receive” “family planning services.” 42 U.S'.C. §§ 1396a(a)(23) & 1396d(a)(4)(C). This provision…