Key Points:

• Supreme Court ruling revives debate over Arizona abortion law

• Planned Parenthood funding tied to broader abortion fight

• Legal challenge needed to lift enforcement injunction

A new ruling on June 26 by the U.S. Supreme Court could pave the way for Arizona to finally enforce an existing state law that denies funds for Planned Parenthood.

But it’s unlikely to be automatic.

That 2012 Arizona statute spells out that Planned Parenthood is ineligible to get paid for services it provides for any service it provides to Medicaid patients, including health care, breast exams, family planning and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, simply because it also provides abortions. Planned Parenthood sued.

A federal judge blocked enforcement. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling. And in 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to disturb that decision.

But the law remains on the books.

What makes that significant is that the current members of the nation’s high court voted 6-3 to uphold a similar South Carolina restriction against Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood, this one enacted by an executive order by Gov. Henry McMaster.

Strictly speaking, neither the unenforced but still in the statutes Arizona law nor the South Carolina regulation is about abortion. In fact, federal law already bars the use of Medicaid funds for elective abortions.

But the issue is whether lawmakers can decide to deny any organization that provides abortion from payment for other Medicaid services.

In blocking the enforcement of the 2012 Arizona law, U.S. District Court Judge Neil Wake said that it is beyond the power of the state. He said those enrolled in the Medicaid program are entitled to choose where they get their non-abortion services.

“The Arizona act violates the freedom of choice provision of the Medicaid Act precisely because every Medicaid beneficiary has the right to select any qualified health care provider,” the judge wrote.

More to the point, Wake’s injunction remains in place to this day. And the only way to overturn that now would be for someone to file legal papers to dissolve it.

But Rep. Justin Olson, R-Mesa, who crafted the original 2012 law, said he is working to find someone to do that.

That may not be as simple as it sounds.

Olson said that does not include the Republican-controlled Legislature. But he said legislative lawyers believe the attorney general does have that right.

An aide to Attorney General Kris Mayes said her office is reviewing the Supreme Court ruling “to understand its implications, if any, for Arizona law.”

But Mayes is unlikely to move to reinstate the 2012 law: She has consistently refused to defend any law she said she believes affects the ability of Arizonans to terminate a pregnancy.

Olson said, however, any of the 15 county attorneys also appear to have a right to resurrect the issue. And he told Capitol Media Services he will be reaching out to some of them to see if they will pick up the case.

There are some clear parallels between the South Carolina case and the rulings blocking the Arizona law.

The South Carolina case involved not a statute but an executive order issued in 2018 by Gov. McMaster declaring that any nonprofit organization or practitioner that offers abortions can no longer participate in the state’s Medicaid program.

That drew a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood and Julie Edwards, who had been a patient there.

She said she needed Medicaid coverage but preferred that organization for her gynecological care. Edwards argued that McMaster’s order violates the requirements in federal law that Medicaid patients can get care from “any qualified provider to perform the service.”

A trial judge and appeals court agreed with her. But Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing June 26 for the majority, said Edwards had no right to sue in the first place.

“Deciding whether to permit private enforcement poses delicate policy questions involving competing costs and benefits — decisions for elected representatives, not judges,” he wrote.

McMaster declared it a victory.

“Seven years ago, we took a stand to protect the sanctity of life and defend South Carolina’s authority and values – and today, we are finally victorious,” he said. “The legality of my executive order prohibiting taxpayer dollars from being used to fund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood has been affirmed by the highest court in the land.”

Olson said what was behind his 2012 legislation directly parallels the reason McMaster issued his executive order.

“It will protect taxpayers from having to fund something a large portion of society views as morally wrong,” he said. And Olson said it’s irrelevant that Planned Parenthood already can’t use Medicaid funds for abortions.

“If we’re funding an organization that is providing elective abortions, then we are providing an opportunity for those organizations to exist and continue to provide those elective abortions,” he said.

“The concern is that there is an indirect subsidy with tax dollars for the elective abortions they’re providing,” Olson said. “And that’s what this would prohibit from occurring.”

There’s another reason that the Supreme Court ruling does not immediately reinvigorate the 2012 Arizona law. That’s because, technically, the decision applies only to the South Carolina regulation. It does not by itself overturn Wake’s ruling.

It does, however, provide what Olson said is needed to file new pleadings to force a federal judge — not Wake, as he is now retired — to reconsider his ruling and dissolve the injunction.

But even with the ruling applying only to South Carolina, it’s not just Olson who believes that the ruling has nationwide implications. Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, acknowledged in a statement that she fears the ruling could lead other states to pursue similar restrictions.

And there’s something else.

It also comes as the Trump administration already is moving to withhold federal family planning funds from several Planned Parenthood organizations across the country. And the budget now being debated by Congress contains a provision to defund Planned Parenthood.