Anti-abortion protestors outside the US Supreme Court

The US Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for states to possibly cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, among the country's biggest abortion suppliers.

Planned Parenthood is already disallowed from getting federal cash for abortion care but the 6-3 judgment would also permit states to cut off reimbursements for other medical services it offers to low-income Americans under the Medicaid program.

The 3 liberal justices on the top court dissented.

The case comes from an executive order provided by South Carolina's Republican governor Henry McMaster in 2018 cutting off Medicaid moneying to the 2 Planned Parenthood centers in the state.

The Medicaid repayments were not abortion-related, but McMaster said offering any funding to Planned Parenthood totals up to a taxpayer "subsidy of abortion," which is prohibited in South Carolina for females who are more than six weeks pregnant.

Planned Parenthood, which offers a large range of reproductive health services, and a South Carolina female struggling with diabetes, submitted fit against the state arguing that Medicaid clients can receive care from any qualified provider.

An appeals court ruled that Planned Parenthood can not be omitted from the state's Medicaid program and South Carolina attracted the Supreme Court, where conservatives wield a 6-3 majority.

The court ruled that a Medicaid patient can not take legal action against the state to receive medical care from a supplier of their choosing.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a dissent joined by the 2 other liberal justices, disagreed.

"Congress enacted the Medicaid Act's free-choice-of-provider provision to ensure that Medicaid receivers can pick their own doctors," Jackson said. "Today's choice is likely to lead to concrete damage to genuine people."

The Supreme Court ruling was invited by the anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, which called it a "major win for infants and their mothers."

It clears the method for South Carolina and other states "to stop moneying big abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood in their Medicaid programs," it stated on X.

Paige Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, called the ruling a "serious injustice" and said it "promises to send out South Carolina deeper into a health care crisis."

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 case that developed federal protections for abortion gain access to, in June 2022.

Since then, more than 20 of the 50 US states have enforced rigorous limitations on abortion, and even straight-out bans.