The Supreme Court appeared divided Wednesday in a case over whether states should be able to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, which comes amid a wider push from abortion opponents to defund the nation’s largest abortion provider.

Low-income patients who go there for things like contraception, cancer screenings and pregnancy testing could see their care upended if the court sides with South Carolina leaders who say no public money should go the organization.

The court is considering a legal question that could have wider effects: Whether Medicaid patients can continue to sue over the right to choose their own qualified provider.

South Carolina says those lawsuits aren’t allowed and barring them would save public money in legal fees. Some conservatives appeared open to that argument. Justice Brett Kavanaugh said there has been confusion over the question in lower courts. “One of my goals coming out of this will be to provide that clarity,” Kavanaugh said.

The state says people could go through an administrative appeal process if denied coverage, though justices like Amy Coney Barrett raised questions about whether that would work for low-income patients. “That’s the beneficiary taking the risk, going to the provider she wants to see, and then potentially having to pay out of pocket, right?”

Planned Parenthood argues Congress clearly wanted people to be able to make their own “intensely personal” decisions about which doctor to visit, and lawsuits are the only real way that right has been enforced.

The case started in 2018, before the court’s decision that overturned the nationwide right to abortion. South Carolina has since banned it after around six weeks’ gestation.

South Carolina’s move to cut off Medicaid funding was blocked in court following a lawsuit from Medicaid patient Julie Edwards, who wanted to keep going to Planned Parenthood for birth control she needed because her diabetes could make it dangerous for her to carry a pregnancy to term, according to court papers. The state eventually appealed to the Supreme Court.

Federal law prohibits Medicaid money from being used for abortions, with very limited exceptions, but patients often go there for other services.

Severe weather hits Midwest, South

Tornadoes and violent storms struck parts of the South and Midwest on Wednesday, knocking down power lines and trees, ripping roofs off homes and shooting debris thousands of feet into the air as a swath of severe weather hit the region.

A tornado emergency was briefly issued in northeast Arkansas, with the National Weather Service’s office in Memphis, Tenn., telling residents on the social platform X: “This is a life threatening situation. Seek shelter now.”

Dozens of tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings were issued in parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Mississippi as storms hit those and other states in the evening.

The South and Midwest also braced for potentially deadly flash flooding over coming days as severe thunderstorms blowing eastward become supercharged, forecasters warned.

More than 90 million people were at some risk of severe weather in a huge part of the nation stretching from Texas to Minnesota and Maine, according to the Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center.

China military pressure continues on Taiwan

China’s military on Wednesday said it was continuing a large-scale military exercise around the island of Taiwan.

On the second day of the exercise, units were running drills in the central and southern part of the Taiwan Strait, said the spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command, Shi Yi, with the exercise involving precision strikes on simulated key targets.

The exercise was titled “Strait Thunder-2025A,” suggesting that another one would follow later this year. Last year, China held two major military exercises around Taiwan in May and October, titled Joint Sword-2024A and Joint Sword-2024B.

The joint exercise involving the army, navy, air force and missile unit began on Tuesday. Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said it had been monitoring the movements of Chinese military assets since Saturday.

Late on Wednesday, it said it had observed at least 36 Chinese military aircraft, 21 warships — including an aircraft carrier in the western Pacific — and 10 Chinese coastguard vessels during the day.

Israel strikes Syrian capital, other sites

The Israeli army carried out multiple airstrikes in different parts of Syria on Wednesday, including the capital Damascus, and “almost completely destroyed” a military airport in another major city as Israel continues to degrade the war-torn country’s military capabilities.

The airstrikes, carried out in five different areas, lasted for 30 minutes and wounded civilians and military personnel, the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement. Syria TV reported that the military airport in Hama, north of Damascus, had been hit more than 15 times.

An Israeli airstrike targeted the vicinity of a research facility in Damascus, the Syrian state-run news agency Sana reported. Israeli forces fired artillery shells in the countryside near Daraa, close to the border with Jordan, according to Syria TV.

The Syrian foreign ministry described the Israeli attacks as an “unjustified escalation” that aimed to “shake the stability of Syria and prolong the suffering of its people.”

Judge blocks Montana trans bathroom law

A judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a Montana law that restricts transgender people’s use of bathrooms in public buildings.

The measure, which Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed into effect last week, threatened to deprive transgender people of their constitutional right to equal protection under the law, Montana District Court Judge Shane Vannatta ruled. The law prevents people from using restrooms in public buildings that do not align with the sex they were assigned at birth.

The five people who sued over the law were likely to prevail, Vannatta added in his ruling.

The judge’s order will be in effect at least until an April 21 hearing on whether it should continue to be blocked while the lawsuit moves ahead.

Gianforte spokesperson Kaitlin Price said the governor will defend the law “and the privacy and safety of women and girls.”

Fourth soldier in fatal Lithuania crash ID’d

The U.S. military on Wednesday identified the fourth American soldier from Georgia’s Fort Stewart who was found dead after he went missing during a training mission in Lithuania.

He is Troy S. Knutson-Collins, 28, an artillery mechanic from Battle Creek, Mich.

The military identified his three deceased comrades Tuesday: Jose Duenez Jr., 25, of Joliet, Ill.; Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, Calif.; and Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam.

All four were part of the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division stationed at Fort Stewart near Savannah.

They were reported missing March 25. At the time, they were operating an M88A2 Hercules armored vehicle near Pabrade, a city in eastern Lithuania. The M88A2 was discovered submerged in a bog. It was pulled out Monday.

The military also announced Monday that Knutson-Collins, Duenez and Franco were posthumously promoted to the rank of staff sergeant.

— From news services