The Wins Keep Coming
MAHA and LIFE scoring some major wins last week
As the 2024-2025 term of the Supreme Court is winding down, some of their decisions are bringing real encouragement to those of us working to bring integrity back to healthcare. We are still riding high from the Skrmetti win last week, giving states the green light to pass their own bans on youth gender medicine, and the wins keep coming in a decidedly explosive manner.
On Thursday, SCOTUS ruled that South Carolina has the right to block Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. The case, Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, centers on a clause that a Medicaid recipient is free to choose their own qualified healthcare provider. Planned Parenthood has been using it for years to subsidize the care they provide, including abortions. Even though the Hyde Amendment bans direct funding of abortions, the millions of dollars of Medicaid reimbursements that they receive ($553.7 million in 2014-2015 fiscal year) frees up resources to fund abortion services.
In a 6-3 ruling, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, giving South Carolina and other states legal ground to defund Planned Parenthood as well as ending individuals right to sue the state under this Medicaid provision.
Prolife taxpayers are rejoicing around the country that their taxpayer dollars will no longer fund abortions if their state seeks to exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid programs.
MAHA also scored a win this week when the ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) voted to recommended that children, pregnant women, and adults should receive only thimerosal-free single-dose influenza vaccines. Thimerosal, a known neurotoxin, is present in multi-dose vials of some vaccines. Currently, 95% of flu vaccines are already produced without thiomersal, so the vote was largely symbolic, but it sends a powerful message that the vaccine committee is recognizing the danger of the mercury-containing preservative instead of the dismissive stance that ACIP has taken for decades.
Unfortunately, the committee did continue to recommend the flu shot, even though this study concluded that “influenza vaccination of working-aged adults was associated with a higher risk of influenza during the 2024-2025 respiratory viral season, suggesting that the vaccine has not been effective in preventing influenza this season.” Yikes. Better luck next year.
The ACIP, consisting of all new members, thanks to Bobby Kennedy, is setting the stage for a new era of transparency and scientific debate in public health. Dr. Martin Kulldorf, former professor of medicine at Harvard and the new chair of the committee, has already announced that the entire childhood vaccine schedule will be evaluated, including the accumulated effects of all 72 shots. Heads are blowing up at the American Academy of Pediatrics.
In the prolife fight here in Montana, the Montana Family Foundation has filed a petition with the Montana Supreme Court, requesting that the court invoke original jurisdiction to stop Constitutional Initiative 128 from taking effect on July 1st. As a reminder, CI-128 created an explicit constitutional right to abortion.
On June 18th, Attorney General Knudsen, representing the State of Montana, filed a notice with the MT Supreme Court agreeing with the petition, requesting that the Court order additional briefing. The focus of the petition is that CI-128 violated election procedures because the Montana Constitution requires that the full text of amendments be printed and distributed to voters before the election, which they argue was not the case for voters who registered on Election Day. Montana prints the text of ballot measures in its voter pamphlet that it sends to registered voters on an active voter list no later than 45 days before the election. Election Day voters did not have access to the amendment’s exact wording, only a summary statement.
To view the filing:
On June 11, Dr. Samuel Dickman, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana, ACLU of Montana, and Forward Montana filed to intervene in the case in support of the initiative. They are represented by Graybill Law Firm and ACLU of Montana.
Please be in prayer for the legal team taking this massive battle on, that the Court can decide based on merit vs politics and that generous donations will fund the legal fight. If you would like to donate to this cause, use this link to MT Family Foundation's Fund.
~Happy 249th Birthday to our great nation and may you all have a blessed 4th of July ~