Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Michigan v. Engler

73 F.3d 634, 1996 F. App'x 0015P, 1996 U.S. App. LEXIS 420
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 16, 1996
DocketNos. 94-1913, 94-2097
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 73 F.3d 634 (Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Michigan v. Engler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Michigan v. Engler, 73 F.3d 634, 1996 F. App'x 0015P, 1996 U.S. App. LEXIS 420 (6th Cir. 1996).

Opinion

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

OAKES, Circuit Judge.

These consolidated cases involve the validity of Section 109a of the Social Welfare Act of Michigan, Mich.Comp.Laws Ann. § 400.109a (West 1994 supp.) (“Section 109a”), which prohibits the expenditure of state funds to pay for an abortion for a welfare recipient unless the abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother. The court for the Western District of Michigan, Judge Benjamin F. Gibson, found that Section 109a conflicted with the Medicaid Act, Title XIX of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1396 et seq., as modified by the 1994 Hyde Amendment, Pub.L. No. 103-112, § 509, 107 Stat. 1082-1113 (1993), which provides federal Medicaid funding for abortions necessary to save the life of the mother and for abortions of pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. The court entered an order enjoining Michigan, for so long as Michigan continues to accept federal Medicaid funds, from enforcing Section 109a “insofar as it prohibits state funding for abortions to terminate pregnancies resulting from acts of rape or incest.”

The Appellants contend that the court erred in finding that Section 109a conflicts with federal law. They claim that the 1994 Hyde Amendment does not modify the Medicaid Act. Appellee Summit Medical Center has cross-appealed, claiming that the court should have enjoined the statute in its entirety, rather than modifying the statute to conform with the Hyde Amendment.

[636]*636We order that the injunction be modified. In all other respects, we affirm the district court.

BACKGROUND

Medicaid, Title XIX of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1396, et seq., is a federal-state cooperative program designed to provide health care to the indigent. Although state participation in Medicaid is purely voluntary, a state participating receives federal funds and must comply with the requirements of the program. Under Medicaid, certain categories of medical care are mandatory and therefore must be provided by participating states when a physician certifies that the care is medically necessary to the patient. See 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(10)(A) (1988). The mandatory categories of care include:

(1) inpatient hospital services ...; (2)(A) outpatient hospital services ...; (3) other laboratory and X-ray services; (4)(A) nursing facility services_; (B) ... early and periodic screening and diagnosis ... for individuals ... under the age of 21; (C) family planning services ... (5)(A) physicians’ services furnished by a physician[.]

42 U.S.C. § 1396d(a)(l)-(5) (1988).

Because abortion fits within many of the mandatory care categories, including “family planning,” “outpatient services,” “inpatient services,” and “physicians’ services,” Medicaid covered medically necessary abortions between 1973 and 1976. In 1976, however, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare appropriation. The Hyde Amendment prohibits federal reimbursement for abortions except in circumstances Congress, rather than a doctor, deems medically necessary. Although the Hyde Amendment frees a state of the obligation to fund abortions for which federal money is denied, nothing in the Hyde Amendment purports to change a state’s obligations with respect to those abortions for which federal funding is available.

Every year since 1976, Congress has passed some version of the Hyde Amendment. Although all versions of the Hyde Amendment have limited the definition of a medically necessary abortion, some versions have been more expansive than others. For example, the fiscal 1978 and 1979 versions allowed funding for abortions necessary to prevent “severe and long-lasting physical health damage to the mother,” as well as for abortions for rape and incest victims and for abortions necessary to save the life of the mother. Pub.L. No. 94-439, § 209, 90 Stat. 1434 (1976). In contrast, between 1982 and 1993, the Hyde Amendment defined medically necessary abortions as only those performed to save the life of the mother.

For fiscal year 1994, Congress expanded the Hyde Amendment to allow federal funding for abortions of pregnancies resulting from rape or incest as well as abortions necessary to save the life of the mother. See The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1994, Pub.L. No. 103-112, § 509, 107 Stat. 1082, 1113 (1993). This provision was renewed for the 1995 fiscal year. See Pub.L. No. 103-333, § 509,108 Stat. 2539 (1994).

Following passage of the first Hyde Amendment, many states promulgated laws restricting Medicaid coverage to those abortions federally funded under the Hyde Amendment. Other states, including Michigan, continued to provide more expansive abortion coverage with state funds. In 1988, however, Michigan citizens voted to enact Section 109a, restricting state Medicaid coverage of abortions. Section 109a states:

Notwithstanding any other provision of this act, an abortion shall not be a service provided with public funds to a recipient of welfare benefits, whether through a program of medical assistance, general assistance, or categorical assistance or through any other type of public aid or assistance program, unless the abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother. It is the policy of this state to prohibit the appropriation of public funds for the purpose of providing an abortion to a person who receives welfare benefits unless the abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother.

[637]*637Social Welfare Act, Mich.Comp.Laws Ann. § 400.109a (West 1994 Supp.). Michigan has not amended Section 109a to conform to the 1994 version of the Hyde Amendment.

In April 1994, Planned Parenthood filed an action seeking declaratory judgment and an injunction of Section 109a because it conflicted with the Hyde Amendment. Two weeks later, three other reproductive health care facilities, Summit Medical Center, Michiana Abortion Clinic, and Northland Family Planning Clinic (the “Summit plaintiffs”), filed a similar action against the operation of Section 109a. The district court consolidated the two cases, and, since the parties agreed there were no factual issues in dispute, proceeded to a final resolution on the merits.

The district court held that Section 109a conflicted with the Medicaid Act as modified by the 1994 Hyde Amendment. The court issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Michigan from enforcing Section 109a “insofar as it prohibits state funding for abortions to terminate pregnancies resulting from acts of rape or incest.” Michigan has appealed the ruling and the Summit plaintiffs have cross-appealed, contending that Section 109a should have been enjoined in its entirety.

DISCUSSION

I. The Effect of the Hyde Amendment on Section 109a

Michigan contends that the district court erred when it determined that Section 109a impermissibly conflicts with federal law. We review the district court’s decision de novo. See Kraus v. Sohel Corrugated Containers, Inc.,

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73 F.3d 634, 1996 F. App'x 0015P, 1996 U.S. App. LEXIS 420, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/planned-parenthood-affiliates-of-michigan-v-engler-ca6-1996.