Missouri taxpayers are being forced to pay Planned Parenthood almost $157,000 in attorneys’ fees after the state tried to hold one of its abortion facilities accountable for not complying with the law.
Last December, the state planned to take away the license of the Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Columbia, Missouri after it was unable to comply with a state admitting privileges law. However, Planned Parenthood sued the state, and a federal judge sided with the abortion giant in May.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey ruled that because the state lost the case, it must pay Planned Parenthood’s attorneys’ fees for the matter, the Salina Post reports. Planned Parenthood wanted $156,788 from the state, and Laughrey awarded the abortion group the total minus $157.50, according to the report.
Here is more from the Post:
[Missouri state attorneys] argued that the amount should be reduced because Planned Parenthood didn’t actually benefit from her order. It said the clinic didn’t have a physician with admitting privileges to provide abortions, as required by Missouri law, so her ruling made no difference.
Laughrey rejected that argument, saying that by prevailing in the case, Planned Parenthood was able to retain its legal status as an ambulatory surgical center.
She also rejected the department’s claims that the legal fees were excessive – although she did reduce them by $157.50, representing a half-hour’s work by one of Planned Parenthood’s attorneys.
The Columbia abortion clinic was set to lose its license to do abortions in December after its abortion doctor, Colleen McNicholas, had her “refer and follow” hospital admitting privileges revoked by the University of Missouri Health Care, LifeNews previously reported. Missouri state law requires that abortion clinics employ doctors with certain hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles of the facility.
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In May, Laughrey ruled that the state could not take away the Columbia abortion clinic’s license and called the state’s attempt to do so politically motivated, according to the Associated Press. Laughrey said in her ruling that the state Department of Health and Senior Services treated the abortion clinic “more harshly” than other ambulatory surgical centers.
The Columbia abortion facility no longer has its license anyway. It expired in July after Planned Parenthood was unable to find a replacement abortionist who has hospital admitting privileges, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The abortion facility has not performed abortions since it lost McNicholas in December.
The University of Michigan voted to stop offering admitting privileges to McNicholas last September, in response to a state investigation prompted by undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress, which showed Planned Parenthood abortionists harvesting and selling aborted babies’ body parts. The investigation revealed a relationship between Planned Parenthood and the university.
McNicholas also is an abortionist at the St. Louis abortion clinic, and in Kansas and soon Oklahoma. She is heavily involved in the pro-abortion movement, not only doing abortions in three states but also setting up fundraising organizations to pay for them and hosting campaign events for pro-abortion candidates like Hillary Clinton, according to Marie Claire.
According to the women’s magazine, the St. Louis abortion facility charges a woman between $545 and $1,470 for an abortion. McNicholas reported doing about 31 abortions a day, which means that clinic is bringing in up to $45,570 per day on abortions alone.
Dozens of women have been hospitalized at the abortion clinics where McNicholas works. Pro-lifers documented 28 times in six years when women were hospitalized for abortion-related complications at the St. Louis Planned Parenthood.
For now, there is one operational abortion facility in the state, the Planned Parenthood in St. Louis.
