AAUW: Supreme Court’s Medina Ruling Is a Dangerous Overreach That Undermines Women’s Access to Care, Education, and Opportunity

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Association of University Women (AAUW) strongly condemns the Supreme Court decision in Medina v. Planned Parenthood of South Carolina. The decision will allow states to block Medicaid reimbursement for trusted reproductive health providers and bars patients from challenging that exclusion. This dangerous overreach threatens access to essential care — including contraception, cancer screenings, and STI testing — especially for low-income women and students. 

AAUW is the nation’s largest non-institutional funder of women in graduate education, with more than $146 million awarded to over 14,000 scholars. We know firsthand that access to the full range of reproductive health care, including contraception, is critical to educational attainment. When women can decide if and when to have children, they are more likely to enroll in college, stay in school, complete their degrees, and pursue advanced careers. 

We have long supported women’s ability to make informed decisions about their own health, families, and futures. Many of our grantees are pursuing rigorous academic paths while also navigating work, caregiving, and financial pressures. Losing access to affordable reproductive care could force countless students to delay or abandon their educational goals altogether. 

Yet barriers to contraception remain widespread. Students at community colleges—who represent over nine million young people—often face higher obstacles than their peers at four-year institutions. Many delay care due to affordability, privacy concerns, and mental health challenges. More than half report not using their preferred contraceptive method, with uninsured students and those in restrictive states facing the steepest hurdles. This ruling will only deepen those inequities, cutting off critical access for those already underserved. 

Planned Parenthood health centers are often the only source of affordable contraception in rural and underserved areas. Stripping Medicaid funding will not end abortion—it will end preventive care for millions. 

As Congress continues to negotiate the budget reconciliation bill, AAUW urges lawmakers not to repeat the same mistake. Currently, the bill’s Medicaid ban on providers that offer abortion care is designed to defund Planned Parenthood outright, stripping reimbursement from the very clinics that deliver affordable birth control, cancer screenings, and STI tests to more than two million patients each year. This disproportionately affects low-income women in rural or medically underserved areas. 

Reproductive freedom is foundational to educational and economic opportunity. AAUW and our members will continue to fight for the rights, dignity, and futures of all women and students. 

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AAUW (American Association of University Women) is the nation’s leading organization for equity in higher education and women’s economic empowerment.   

Founded in 1881 by women who defied society’s conventions by earning college degrees, AAUW has since worked to increase women’s access, opportunity, and equity in higher education through research, advocacy, and philanthropy of over $140 million, supporting thousands of women scholars. Learn more at aauw.org and follow us at @AAUW.