Planned Parenthood

A divided Supreme Court allowed states to cut off Medicaid money to Planned Parenthood in a ruling handed down Thursday amid a wider Republican-backed push to defund the country's biggest abortion provider.

The state cut off funding to Planned Parenthood because it provided non-abortion services to Medicaid patients.

Abortion providers are trying to lengthen the narrow window when they can legally terminate a pregnancy under a strict new ban in South Carolina.

South Carolina can continue enforcing its six-week abortion ban after a state judge on Tuesday denied a request to temporarily block it amid a legal battle that is now headed to the state Supreme Court. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic had asked the judge for an injunction while their lawsuit challenging the ban moved through the courts. The lawsuit argues that the law violates the state constitution's rights to privacy and equal protection. Circuit Court Judge Casey Manning on Tuesday transferred the case to the Supreme Court, saying the case raised the "most fundamentally important constitutional issue" he has seen. He said Planned Parenthood could seek an injunction from that court.