Harris v. McRae
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| Harris v. McRae | ||||||||||||||
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| Argued April 21, 1980 Decided June 30, 1980 |
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| Holding | ||||||||||||||
| States that participated in Medicaid were not required to fund medically necessary abortions for which federal reimbursement was unavailable as a result of the Hyde Amendment. The funding restrictions of the Hyde Amendment did not violate either the Fifth Amendment or the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. | ||||||||||||||
| Court membership | ||||||||||||||
| Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger Associate Justices: William J. Brennan, Jr., Potter Stewart, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., William Rehnquist, John Paul Stevens |
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| Case opinions | ||||||||||||||
| Majority by: Stewart Joined by: Burger, White, Powell, Rehnquist Concurrence by: White Dissent by: Brennan Joined by: Marshall, Blackmun Dissent by: Marshall Dissent by: Blackmun Dissent by: Stevens |
Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297 (1980),[1] was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that States that participated in Medicaid were not required to fund medically necessary abortions for which federal reimbursement was unavailable as a result of the Hyde Amendment, which restricted the use of federal funds for abortion. The Court also held that the funding restrictions of the Hyde Amendment did not violate either the Fifth Amendment or the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
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[edit] Background
In 1965 Congress amended Title XIX of the Social Security Act to create the Medicaid program. Medicaid is a voluntary program which provides federal funds to those states that choose to provide reimbursement for certain medical expenses for the indigent.[2]
In September, 1976, Congress began, either by amendment to the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare or by joint resolution, to ban the use of federal funds to reimburse the cost of abortions under Medicaid.[3] Initially, the only exception was where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term. These restrictions became known as the Hyde Amendment, named for the measure's original sponsor, Illinois Congressman Henry Hyde. The language of the 1980 Hyde Amendment provided,
| “ | [None] of the funds provided by this joint resolution shall be used to perform abortions except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term; or except for such medical procedures necessary for the victims of rape or incest when such rape or incest has been reported promptly to a law enforcement agency or public health service.[4] | ” |
In 1976, following passage of the original Hyde Amendment, an action was brought in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York seeking to injoin enforcement of the Amendment's restrictions.[5] Plaintiffs were Cora McRae, a New York Medicaid recipient then in the first trimester of a pregnancy that she wished to abort, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., which operated hospitals providing abortion services, officers of the Women's Division of the Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, and the Women's Division itself.[6] McRae sought to bring the action as a class action, on behalf of other similarly situated women.[7] The district court granted the class certification motion, and also permitted Senators James Buckley and Jesse Helms and Congressman Hyde to intervene as defendants.[8]
The district court granted the injunction on January 15, 1980, finding that the Hyde Amendments violated the Fifth Amendment's Due Process clause and the First Amendment's Establishment clause.[9]
[edit] Supreme Court decision
Justice Stewart delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Chief Justice Burger, Justice White, Justice Powell, and Justice Rehnquist joined. Justice White wrote an opinion concurring the judgment. Justice Brennan wrote a dissent, in which Justice Marshall and Justice Blackmun joined. Justice Marshall and Justice Blackmun also authored separate dissents, as did Justice Stevens.
