Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE) signed an executive order on Thursday, effectively preventing Planned Parenthood from being reimbursed for medical services through the state’s Medicaid system, making it the sixth state to cut off reimbursement to the nation’s leading abortion provider.
Pillen’s executive order comes after the Supreme Court opinion earlier this year in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, finding that states have the authority to exclude abortion providers under their Medicaid rules.
“There’s not going to be a penny of Nebraska tax dollars going to Planned Parenthood clinics,” Pillen said at the signing ceremony Thursday.
The text of Pillen’s executive order prevents Nebraska Medicaid dollars from being distributed to any healthcare provider that is prohibited from reimbursement in any other state.
South Carolina, the defendant in the Medina case, was the first state to bar abortion providers from Medicaid funds legislatively, even for non-abortion services, such as birth control and STI testing. Since the Medina decision, which protected South Carolina’s statute excluding Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, several other states have followed suit.
Abortion opponents argue that money given to Planned Parenthood for non-abortion procedures indirectly funds abortions because using state dollars on procedures like birth control effectively frees up donation money given to the organization to use for abortions.
“We as taxpayers should not be funding abortion services, period, pure and simple,” Pillen said. “Under this executive order, any provider, including abortion clinics, terminated from another state’s Medicaid program will have their enrollment terminated here in Nebraska.”
Supporters of Planned Parenthood argue that shutting off Medicaid reimbursements will cut patients off from essential health services such as STI screenings.
Planned Parenthood’s annual report from 2022, before the organization was denied federal funding for this year as part of the GOP tax bill, found that more than half of its 9.1 million services were STI testing and treatment, while about a quarter involved contraception.
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Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers said on Thursday that women on Medicaid have access to “a whole host of high-quality providers in the state of Nebraska who have survived and are functioning without providing abortion services.”
Abortion is legal in Nebraska up to 12 weeks of pregnancy after voters during the 2024 elections passed a constitutional amendment preventing the legislature from prohibiting abortions earlier in pregnancy.
