The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a case over South Carolina’s effort to defund Planned Parenthood. The state wants to cut off Medicaid funding for all of Planned Parenthood’s healthcare services. That includes things like mammograms, birth control, STD testing — you know, health care. So here we are again, with the very conservative Supreme Court set to hear another case that could affect how and where people get their reproductive care. Mary Ziegler, a professor at U.C. Davis School of Law and an expert on the history and politics of abortion in the U.S., explains where the reproductive rights debate is headed in President-elect Donald Trump’s second term. And in headlines: Trump torpedoed a government funding bill that could set us up for a government shutdown, the House Ethics Committee voted to release its report on former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the first severe case of bird flu in the U.S.
It's Thursday, December 19th.
I'm Jane Coastin and this is Whataday, the show that is pleased to announce that America is finally free of the murder hornets, an extremely rare W over the insects for those of us in the human race.
On today's show, Trump blows up a bill to fund the government.
And it looks like we'll get to see that House Ethics Committee report on former Congressman Matt Gaetz after all.
Let's get into it.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a case out of South Carolina.
It's not directly about abortion, but it's also definitely about abortion.
South Carolina is trying to defund Planned Parenthood and it wants to do that by cutting off Medicaid funding for all of Planned Parenthood's healthcare services.
Things like mammograms, birth control, STD testing, you know, healthcare.
Some things to note here.
South Carolina has already banned most abortions and Medicaid has for decades been barred from paying for them except in cases of rape, incest, or when someone's life is at risk.
But this case is still about abortion.
An attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative group representing South Carolina, said as much in a statement.
He said pro life states like South Carolina should be free to determine that Planned Parenthood and other entities that peddle abortion are not qualified to receive taxpayer funding through Medicaid.
So here we are again with the very conservative Supreme Court set to hear another case that could affect how and where people get their reproductive care.
It's not going to stop with President elect Donald Trump heading back to the White House.
He'll almost certainly appoint more federal judges that are sympathetic to these cases and that will embolden conservative lawmakers to take more legal risks to limit access to reproductive care.
For more on the state of abortion as we head into a second Trump term, I spoke with Mary Ziegler.
She's a professor at UC Davis School of Law and she's an expert on the history and politics of abortion in the U.S.
mary, welcome to what a Day.