What A Day - Why Planned Parenthood Is Back In Front Of SCOTUS

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments today in a big case about healthcare access and Planned Parenthood. The years-long court fight centers on South Carolina’s bid to push the reproductive care provider off the state’s Medicaid program. The actual question in front of the justices is a technical one, but a decision in South Carolina’s favor could prompt a wave of states to strip Medicaid funding away from Planned Parenthood. Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood’s president, explains what’s at stake in the case.And in headlines: Attorney General Pam Bondi said she would seek the death penalty for the man charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, the Trump administration admitted it made an ‘administrative error’ in deporting a Maryland father with protected legal status to El Salvador, and mass layoffs began at the Department of Health and Human Services.Show Notes:Learn more about Planned Parenthood –www.plannedparenthood.org/Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Wednesday, April 2nd. I'm Jane Coaston and this is What Today, the show saying get out your Rosie the Riveter cosplay because apparently we're at war, according to Fox News. Look, when this nation used to go to war, people in this country would support the war effort with their materials at home and making things for weaponry and all that. We've got to do 100% buy-in over this bumpy period. Just communicate. To be clear, Harris Faulkner is comparing voluntary tariffs

to the sacrifices Americans made during World War II. We are not actually in a global conflict, but grow your own cabbage and smelt steel for Trump. On today's show, the White House admits to an administrative error when it deported a Salvadoran man, and fired Health and Human Services employees are told to take their complaints to a dead person. But let's start today by talking about Planned Parenthood. As you probably know, the Republican Party and Planned Parenthood do not exactly get

along. To fund Planned Parenthood, as in cut off federal funding for the organization, has been a rallying cry for the GOP for more than a decade. Here's the head of Students for Life, Kristin Hawkins, on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. This brings us to today's historic moment, where the pro-life movement stands unified behind one single message, defund the entire abortion industry, defund their longtime standard bearer of Planned Parenthood once and for all. And with a new Supreme Court case, they might get their wish.

At issue is Medicaid, a government program that ensures low-income adults and children. Nearly half of the people who use Planned Parenthood for health care use Medicaid to pay for it. But back in 2018, the state of South Carolina prohibited Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding. Why? Abortion. Now, the actual question before the justices is a little bit of a technical one and not

explicitly about abortion. At issue is whether Medicaid patients can sue the state over a legal provision that says they have the right to choose the healthcare provider they want, even if that provider is Planned Parenthood. People in South Carolina already can't use Medicaid to pay for an abortion in most cases, but the state argued in a brief to the Supreme Court that the money Planned Parenthood gets from Medicaid

to cover birth control or sexually transmitted infection testing could be used for the procedure. So you shouldn't be able to sue the state to let you go there. The state writes, quote, because money is fungible, giving Medicaid dollars to abortion facilities frees up their other funds to provide more abortions. So even if Medicaid doesn't pay for abortions in South Carolina, the state of South Carolina is arguing it just does anyway. So if a patient on Medicaid wants to see a doctor at Planned Parenthood in South Carolina, even to just get a checkup, the state says no bueno. A Supreme Court ruling in favor of South Carolina could be devastating for Planned Parenthood,

not just in that state, but in red states across the country. And that would be a big win for the anti-abortion movement and a big loss for millions of patients nationwide. So to talk more about the Supreme Court case, I had to hear from Alexis McGill Johnson, the president of Planned Parenthood. Alexis, welcome to What a Day. Thank you for having me, Jane. I'm happy to be here. So can you tell us a little bit more about the case that's in front of the justices today? What's at stake here?

Yeah. So the Supreme Court is about to decide whether or not people who use Medicaid can fight against politically driven, illegally driven policies that wanna take away access to their right to use government-based insurance to decide which provider they want to have, right? So to be clear about this, through this case, it is clear that the court is trying to pave the way for lawmakers to try to defund Planned

Parenthood by trying to take away access to the insurance that 50% of our patients use in order to get the care if they elect for us to be their preferred provider. I think that something that's interesting about this case is that South Carolina already bans abortions after six weeks and federal law bans Medicaid from paying for abortions except in the cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment. But South Carolina is saying like, no, no, no, any Medicaid money going to Planned Parenthood for STI testing for basic healthcare services somehow pays for abortion. So what services would be hit hardest

if the court sides with South Carolina? Because again, Planned Parenthood does a ton of other things besides abortion. Yeah, and Planned Parenthood, look, is a nation's largest sexual reproductive healthcare provider, right? We provide access to birth control, to STI testing, to wellness exams, to breast cancer screenings, gender-affirming care.

My mom found out she was having me at a Planned Parenthood. That was her primary care provider back in 1987. Oftentimes the first point of entry into the healthcare system, period. And so, as you know, that Planned Parenthood provides lifesaving, affirming care, and all of those things would be under attack if our patients in South Carolina would not be able to walk through Planned Parenthood Health Center and use their insurance with Planned Parenthood as their preferred provider.

And it's just clearly a political attack, right? You have Governor McMaster, who has taken it upon himself to drive his own political agenda to say, we don't want any money going to Planned Parenthood because of abortion. So we're just gonna take away access for hundreds of thousands of patients who walk through the doors every year.

And to be clear, other states have barred Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid money. What has that meant for patients in those states? Yeah, I mean, obviously when you deny access to people by taking away their ability to pay for care, you are opening up yourself, you know, to the idea that people may not actually seek access to the care that they want. So in states like Texas, we've seen tens of thousands of women not being able to get care,

traveling out of state, as you know, since not just the Dab's decision, but for that. In Tennessee, we saw, I think, almost a 1400% decrease in services because patients weren't able to get that care. We are already in a public health care crisis right now because of the Dab's decision and the impact on many providers choosing not to work and operate in banned states. And Planned Parenthood is still there opening their doors, even with not being able to get reimbursed

by Medicaid in some instances. So like my message is clear, like Planned Parenthood is here. We are here every day opening up doors, opening up health centers, walking through protesters, walking patients through protesters in order to provide high quality sexual and reproductive healthcare that we believe our patients deserve. And on the other side, we see these lawmakers, like Governor McMaster, trying to use their political agenda to rip away that access in their own communities. To what extent are you bracing for a bad outcome here?

I know that conservative supermajority on this court has been hostile to advocates of abortion rights. And even though this case isn't explicitly about abortion, I think everybody on the anti-abortion side thinks it's about abortion. And this court has been no friend of Planned Parenthood. I think that's right. I mean, look, our job at Planned Parenthood is to be professional scenario planners.

And you are absolutely right. The Supreme Court has not been particularly friendly to Planned Parenthood, but certainly not friendly to access to abortion. The concern here is that if South Carolina prevails, that other states will follow suit and find ways to remove Planned Parenthood as a provider of choice in state after state, which would jeopardize access for health care for millions of patients across this country. Could Planned Parenthood as an organization survive if, say, half the states restrict

Medicaid payments? It's going to be a very tough road. Obviously, the Medicaid defund threat is looming incredibly large. It could impact as much as 300 health centers across the country. It's a little more than half of all of our health centers. And it would be obviously a very devastating impact. Again, not to Planned Parenthood, right? Not just to Planned Parenthood,

but to the millions of patients that are seen at Planned Parenthood health centers across this nation. And that's where I think we have to center the impact on the people who are being attacked through these policies. Prohibiting Planned Parenthood from getting Medicaid funding is included in Project 2025, the super conservative policy agenda that Trump disavowed on the campaign trail

because he did not want to talk about abortion. He wanted to keep as far away from abortion as he could, but he appears to be implementing Project 2025 anyway. So how could a decision in South Carolina's favor embolden the Trump administration to further attack Planned Parenthood? Well, I mean, as I said, the attacks are already moving. Just yesterday, the Trump administration

used an executive order in order to deny access to funds under the Title X program to several Planned Parenthood affiliates. Title X is the nation's largest family planning, contraception, public policy funding that many of our affiliates rely on to provide that basic level sexual reproductive care state after state. We have already seen the attacks coming through Congress

with these attempts to gauge in a Medicaid defund that would impact so many people across this country. And obviously, we're sitting here at the Supreme Court today waiting to hear the justices' questions about whether or not a governor can use a politically motivated agenda to deny people the right to choose their own provider. Right? I cannot think of anything more actually antithetical to conservative or libertarian ideology.

And yet here we are, which goes, which shows you, right, that, that they are willing to pull out all the stops to attack Planned Parenthood and all of the patients that Planned Parenthood serves. Will Planned Parenthood sue over those Title X cuts? No, I am not at liberty to talk about any potential litigation and legal actions right now, but I will tell you we are going to fight and fight and fight like hell to ensure that we can continue to provide the care and receive the resources to do so. Now, this is all very hard to hear for people who care about reproductive rights or for people who just care about people being able to see their doctor. I seem to remember something during the fight over Obamacare about

conservatives being very mad that you might not be able to see the doctor you want to see. And apparently that's not true anymore. But I want to know what can our listeners do to help? I think the most important thing right now is that this is the moment, right? This is the moment when the policies of this administration, when the threats that we are seeing before our nation's courts, when we are seeing the impact of the conversations that are happening all throughout Congress around taking away access to healthcare. This is the moment that we actually have to show up and show up strong and we're not going anywhere.

We're definitely not backing down from a fight and we're not backing down from providing the services that we think are critical for our communities. Make America healthy again, indeed. Alexis, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you. That was my conversation with Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson.

We'll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a 5-star review and up a podcast, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. Water Day is brought to you by Magic Spoon. Magic Spoon makes high protein, zero sugar cereal and treats reinvented from your childhood. And now, Magic Spoon is also launching a brand new high protein granola. True to the Magic Spoon promise, it's packed with protein and totally delicious. Magic Spoon's high protein treats are crispy, crunchy, airy, and an easy way to get 12 grams of protein on the go.

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or in your nearest grocery store. That's magicspoon.com slash day for $5 off. Here's what else we're following today. Head of Lines. This is when the most precious ideas of our country are being tested, where the Constitution and the question is being called, where does the Constitution live, on paper or in our hearts?

Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey broke the record for the longest individual speech in Senate History Tuesday after holding the podium for more than 25 hours. The previous record stood at 24 hours and 18 minutes. Here's minority leader Chuck Schumer telling Booker he made history Tuesday night. Would the senator yield for a question? Chuck Schumer is the only time in my life I can tell you no. I just want to tell you a question.

Do you know you have just broken the record? Do you know how proud this caucus is of you? Do you know you have just broken the record? Do you know how proud this caucus is of you? Do you know how proud America is of you? It all started Monday evening around 7 p.m. Eastern when Booker took to the Senate floor and told his colleagues he would stay there and speak for as long as he was, quote, physically able. And stay he did. Booker talked through the evening and well into Tuesday night, taking his sweet time to rail against President Trump and his administration's policies on everything

from immigration and healthcare to the economy. Here he is on the floor Tuesday. He promised to lower your grocery prices, they're higher. He promised I'll be a better store of the economy. It's worse than when inherited. Over and over, he's breaking promises and doing outrageous things, like disappearing people off of American streets,

violating fundamental principles of this document, invoking the Alien Enemies Act from the 1700s that was last used to put Japanese Americans in internment camps? Do we see what's happening? Senate Democrats chimed in here and there to ask Booker questions or make remarks so the New Jersey senator could take a break from speaking while keeping the podium. Some House Democrats stopped by to show their support for Booker from the sidelines of the Senate floor, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Booker's speech technically isn't a filibuster since he wasn't blocking a piece of legislation or nomination. Now that the administration has conceded that there was an error of one Salvadorian national, will there be any reviews conducted? And does the president express any thoughts on the one error that was disclosed in court last night? Well, first of all, the error that you are referring to was a clerical error. It was an administrative error.

Okay, so that's still an error. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt, Tuesday, defended the Trump administration's deportation of a Maryland man with protected legal status to El Salvador last month. Administration officials admitted to the mistake in a court filing Monday. They said Kilmar Armando Obrego Garcia, who is Salvadoran, was deported because of a quote administrative error. But they're not exactly keen to fix the mess they've created. In the same filing, Justice Department lawyers said federal courts lacked the authority to have him sent back. Basically, the TLDR version of the White House's stance is, oops, too bad.

So what actually happened? According to a complaint filed by his lawyers, Abrego Garcia was arrested in March by immigration officials. He was then sent to El Salvador on one of those deportation flights carrying alleged gang members. But in 2019, an immigration judge awarded Abrego Garcia protection from being deported back to El Salvador, on the grounds that he would likely be targeted by gangs there. But none of that is stopping the administration from pushing the narrative it wants. Vice President JD Vance posted on Twitter Monday night that court documents showed Abrego Garcia was a quote, convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here.

They didn't. Only that an informant claimed he was an MS-13 gang member and that a judge once held him in detention on evidence supporting that claim. That's not even close to a conviction. Abrego Garcia disputes those claims. His lawyer said he's never been charged or convicted of any criminal charges in the U.S. or any other country. That wasn't the only oopsie the Trump administration made. The Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, began laying off employees Tuesday.

And surprisingly, that's not the mistake. The department announced last week it would cut 10,000 jobs at key federal health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration. You know, the departments thatutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration. You know, the departments that study human health, track disease outbreaks, and make sure our food and medicine are safe. That's bad. According to CNN, more than 100,000 federal workers have been fired by the Trump administration, and the Department of Government Efficiency plans to cut tens of thousands of more jobs.

And as if we needed more evidence that these cuts are haphazard and not inclusive of folks who actually work in these offices and know what the hell is going on, the agency apparently made a major fuck up in a notice it issued to workers who were laid off. The Washington Post reported that employees who felt they were discriminated against in their firing should submit complaints to Anita Pinder.

As of our recording Tuesday night, Pinder is listed on the HHS website as the Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. But there is just one problem. Pinder is dead. She passed away last year. Karen Shields, a government health employee who worked with Pinder, commented on the air. She told the Post, quote, There is just a better way to do this. Couldn't agree more. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday she's directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering United Health Care executive

Brian Thompson. Thompson was fatally shot outside a hotel in Manhattan in December. In a statement, Bondi said she made the decision to pursue the death penalty after careful consideration. She said Mangione's alleged murder of Thompson was, quote, a premeditated cold-blooded assassination that shocked America. Mangione was arrested in December. He pleaded not guilty to state charges.

He's also facing a federal indictment in which Bondi is asking prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Bondi said her directive is in line with President Trump's agenda to, quote, stop violent crime and make America safe again. On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order directing the attorney general to pursue the death penalty depending on the severity of the crime. Mangione's lawyer said in a statement that by seeking the death penalty, quote, the Justice Department has moved

from the dysfunctional to the barbaric. And that's the news. ["The New York Times"] One more thing. I know the last few days and weeks and months in American politics have been, um, absorbing. Yes, that's the word I'll use. Absorbing. Insane-making also works. But it's important to take a look around the world to see how other countries have responded

to rulers who seem to believe that they have permission to do pretty much anything they want. Case in point, Turkey. Over the past week or so, Turkey has been engulfed in massive protests, the biggest in a decade, after Turkey's president, Recep Erdogan, had the mayor of Istanbul, his biggest political rival and perhaps the person best positioned to beat Erdogan at the ballot box arrested last week. He was imprisoned on charges of corruption and bribery. Charges, which the Istanbul mayor rejected in an opinion piece he wrote for the New York Times, from prison. The Turkish government even revoked his college diploma, which matters because presidential candidates in Turkey are required to have a university degree. Erdogan has been in power since 2003,

and under his control, Turkey has seen a gradual erosion of individual liberties. And civil liberties have even been threatened by Turkish authorities outside of Turkey. Back in 2017, when Erdogan visited the White House during Trump's first term, his bodyguards brutally attacked protesters in DC, leading the late Senator John McCain

to demand the expulsion of the Turkish ambassador. You could call it a bodyguard riot, security men guarding Turkey's President Erdogan, kicking and pummeling protesters outside the Turkish embassy Tuesday in one of Washington's fanciest neighborhoods. 11 people injured too seriously, two protesters arrested. And in case you're wondering, the Trump administration's relationship with Erdogan is, um, complicated.

Back in January, Trump said, quote, President Erdogan is a friend of mine. He's a guy I like. Respect. I think he respects me also. But Erdogan and the Turkish government are not a huge fan of Israel. He allegedly called for the destruction of, quote, Zionist Israel during Eid prayers on Sunday. And as you, the US and Israel have very very close ties But then there's the comments Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Wittkopf made on Tucker Carlson's podcast late last month I think the president has a relationship with Erdogan and that's going to be important and I think that There's there's there's some good coming, there's some just a lot of good positive news

coming out of Turkey right now as a result of that conversation. So I think you'll see that in the reporting in the coming days. Those comments were made just before the Istanbul mayor's arrest, which raises some questions for me. But Trump has a way of overpowering everything and anything,

and I think it's important not to let him do that here. Because the Turkish people are standing up to Erdogan in the hundreds of thousands, even after the arrest of more than 1,500 people and the detention of several journalists, including a BBC journalist who was deported because he was, quote, being a threat to public order. Even after the government banned protests altogether, the Turkish people are still protesting. Before we go, with Pope Francis in critical condition after recent hospitalizations, Vatican insiders are already scheming over his successor. But decades before Francis worked to rebuild trust in the church, a scandal rocked the

Vatican, the mysterious death of banker Roberto Calvi. Found hanging under a London bridge in 1982, Calvi's death was ruled a suicide, but plenty of people weren't convinced. Forty years later, journalist Niccolo Manoni got a tip that there was more to the story. In Crooked's newest series, Shadow Kingdom, God's Banker, Niccolo unspools the thread of this immersive true story to answer one question. Who killed God's Banker? Listen to Shadow Kingdom, God's Banker wherever you get your podcasts, or binge all episodes now at crooked.com slash friends or on the Shadow Kingdom Apple podcast feed.

That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, celebrate people who say the quiet part out loud and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just about how Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, well, just listen to him. Well, let's look at Medicare. Is there some way that we can cut Medicare so that it's Just listen to him. Like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com slash subscribe.

I'm Jane Coaston. And sometimes people just say things out loud, don't they? What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded in a mix by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Emily Four. Our producer is Michelle Alloy. We had production help today from Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters, and Julia Clare.

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