Month: July 2025

SUPREME COURT RULES THAT STATES MAY DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD

nancyvalko abortion, culture, education, law, media, medical, nursing, Planned Parenthood, pro-life

Supreme Court clears way for states to kick Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid – POLITICO

A stunning 6-3 Supreme Court decision on June 26, 2025 has now cleared the way for states to exclude Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs, concluding that federal law doesn’t allow health care providers or patients to sue if a state violates a provision of federal law guaranteeing the Medicaid patients can visit their preferred provider.

According to Politico:

“The decision rejected a challenge to South Carolina’s 2018 expulsion of Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program. It will likely allow other conservative states to similarly expel reproductive and sexual health clinics — shrinking the already narrow network of providers available in the health insurance program for low-income Americans.”

and

“Defunding” Planned Parenthood is a goal of many conservatives, who object to its abortion services. Federal law has long banned federal money from being used for abortions. But Planned Parenthood clinics provide many other health care services that are typically eligible for payment under Medicaid.

Thursday’s ruling will make it easier for states to deprive Planned Parenthood — and other clinics that provide abortions — from receiving Medicaid payments for any of their non-abortion-related care.”

BACKGROUND

As I wrote in my December 14, 2018 blog, “Why is the US Supreme Court Ducking the Issue of States Defunding Planned Parenthood?”:

“Most of Planned Parenthood’s federal funding is from Medicaid reimbursements for preventive care, and some is from Title X. At least 60% of Planned Parenthood patients rely on public health programs like Medicaid and Title X for preventive and primary care.” (Emphasis added)

According to a Lozier Institute Report, in its latest report 2016-2017, Planned Parenthood received “$543.7 million in funds from all levels of government in that fiscal year…primarily from the Medicaid program”. (All emphasis added)

CONCLUSION

Ironically, although the brief by Planned Parenthood of Gulf Coast  to the Supreme Court insisted that their clinics “..provide essential medical care to thousands of low-income Louisiana residents through Medicaid” and “offer a range of services, including annual physical exams, screenings for breast cancer and cervical cancer, contraception, pregnancy testing and counseling, and other preventative health services”, the reality is that there are many more places, such as federally qualified community health centers (which do not provide abortions) that provide more comprehensive health care services than those offered by Planned Parenthood.

On a personal note, several years ago my late daughter Marie secretly went to a Planned Parenthood clinic for a possible sexually transmitted disease. She finally admitted this to me when her symptoms grew worse. I immediately took her to my own gynecologist who had to perform surgery to remove part of her cervix to deal with the damage.

Planned Parenthood had missed the diagnosis.

MY “WORST” PATIENT

nancyvalko culture, faith, medical ethics, nursing, pro-life

I was a newly divorced mother of three young children when I returned to nursing to support our little family.

I had been a happily stay-at-home mom for years until my husband had a mental breakdown, took all our money, and fled the state after one of our children died, but I was grateful to find a job on an oncology unit and some childcare.

I was a little nervous about being a working nurse again, but when I started my first day back, I was startled by loud shouting from a patient’s room, even through the door was closed.

I asked what was going on and the other nurses told me that the patient was abusive and shouting all the time, even though he didn’t seem in pain.

The other nurses said they had all agreed to change nurses every day because he was so nasty and they told me I was going to be assigned to him later.

I read the man’s chart and talked to the man’s doctor to ask him what was going on. I was shocked when the doctor said he thought the man was “evil”! I asked the doctor “Like Hannibal Lecter in the movie Silence of the Lambs?” He said yes and I felt a cold chill.

So I made a plan.

When my turn came up to care for the man, I asked to have him all week on the night shift. “No problem!”, the other nurses said.

The first night, the man didn’t sleep and kept shouting loudly. He ignored my questioning so I sat next to his bed and tried to understand what he was shouting.

I discovered that he was enraged and cursing God Himself. I listened quietly until he stopped.

After a while, I held his hand and every time he started to yell again, I replied “God still loves you” over and over until he eventually he fell asleep,

This went on night after night until one night he stopped and slept through the night.

The next day, he woke up and said he wanted to take a walk so I took him to the hallway just as the day shift came in.

The man smiled at them and said “Good morning, ladies!” Everyone was stunned but his whole attitude changed from then on.

Weeks later, I met a student nurse who asked how he was doing. She said she had made a big mistake with his portacath IV access and had to have it replaced surgically. She was devastated but when she apologized, he told her not to worry and that he was fine.

The student told me that she was the nicest patient she ever had!

I told her my story and said that sensitively caring for the most difficult patients can be the greatest reward of all!

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