Supreme Court Blocks 2020 Census Citizenship Question For Now, Yet Allows Partisan Electoral Maps to Continue 

Court Refuses Opportunity to Protect Marginalized Communities from Discriminatory Policies

WASHINGTON — Today, the Supreme Court issued two 5-4 decisions that will deeply affect accurate representation of people across the country. The Court ruled that the Department of Commerce cannot include a citizenship question on the upcoming 2020 Census for now, unless it can adequately explain why the question is needed to a lower court. For now, immigrants will likely be able to complete the census without fear of detention or deportation, ensuring all people are counted and fully represented. The Supreme Court also ruled today that partisan gerrymandering is a political question on which the courts cannot rule, meaning that courts may not block partisan electoral maps. By allowing politicians to draw these maps with impunity, the Court has refused to make sure that each person’s vote counts fairly and equally. Despite the fact that the Court did not greenlight the discriminatory Census question, these 5-4 decisions highlight the Court’s unwillingness to strongly stand up for the most marginalized communities, whether through protection in the Census, or providing an equal voice in our elections.

Statement from Dr. Leana Wen, President and CEO, Planned Parenthood Federation of America:

People deserve to have their votes counted and to be accurately represented in our nation’s government, in Congress, and in statehouses across the country. The Supreme Court did not take this crucial opportunity to affirmatively protect immigrants, young people, people of color, or people with low incomes from attacks on their ability to vote and be fully represented. We know that if all people’s voices are not included, then politicians will make decisions that can actively harm them. Nowhere else is this clearer than the extreme abortion bans sweeping our nation, despite the fact that 77 percent of Americans don’t want Roe v. Wade to be overturned. Every single person residing in the U.S. has a constitutional right to be counted, and a fundamental right to health care.

Adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census would be a departure from long-standing policy in which all people residing in the United States are counted, and was opposed by a bipartisan group of former Census Bureau directors. The census has always been an important tool for representing people at the federal, state, and local levels, and ensuring its accuracy means affording communities the funding and political representation that they need. For example, Medicaid, a program that one in five women of reproductive age rely on, accounts for 58 percent of census-guided funding. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also distributes funding for Title X, the nation’s only dedicated program for affordable birth control, based, in part, on the census results. Families with young children, families with low incomes, immigrants, and Indigenous populations have been historically undercounted by the census. The addition of a citizenship question would have put these communities even more at risk. Planned Parenthood is joining alongside partners to make sure all communities are counted. The Commerce Department and the Census Bureau should respect the Supreme Court’s decision and immediately proceed with preparations for a 2020 Census that does not include the citizenship question.

Many of the 2.4 million patients that Planned Parenthood health centers see each year are young people, people of color, or people with low incomes — all groups that have faced targeted attacks on their ability to vote. The gerrymandering allowed by the Court today is part of a larger effort to skew elections and disenfranchise people of color, people with low incomes, people with disabilities, and young people.

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Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading provider and advocate of high-quality, affordable health care for women, men, and young people, as well as the nation’s largest provider of sex education. With more than 600 health centers across the country, Planned Parenthood organizations serve all patients with care and compassion, with respect and without judgment. Through health centers, programs in schools and communities, and online resources, Planned Parenthood is a trusted source of reliable health information that allows people to make informed health decisions. We do all this because we care passionately about helping people lead healthier lives.