Poelker v. Doe

While the Supreme Court agreed that the constitutional question concerning discrimination presented in Poelker v. Doe was identical in principle to that represented by a state's denial of Medicaid benefits for abortions while providing them for childbirth, they still found grounds to reverse the decision made by the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Key to this decision was the manner in which the hospital refused to perform the abortion--as a policy choice. An important aspect of arriving at this conclusion was the determination that there was no direct contact between the doctors and staff of the hospital and Mayor Poelker--and therefore no direct influence concerning the mayor's personal opposition to abortion. Indeed, the Court deemed that the mayor's personal opinions concerning abortion were not relevant to the case and declared that the policy of denying city funds for abortions such as that requested by Doe was a matter of public debate and could be decided at the polls. The Supreme Court determined that the city of St. Louis did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. A city is well within its constitutional rights to provide, as a policy choice, publicly financed hospital services for childbirth while not offering services for nontherapeutic abortions.

Upon arriving at this decision, the Supreme Court also deemed that the court of appeals erred in reversing the decision of the Federal District Court and that it had wrongly awarded attorneys' fees to the prevailing party.