TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas attorney general’s office has paid outside lawyers more than $675,000 to defend state abortion laws.
The office says it paid about $333,000 as of Thursday to Foulston Siefken, a Wichita firm helping defend budget provisions denying federal dollars for non-abortion services to Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood has filed a federal lawsuit against the measures.
The attorney general’s office paid more than $211,000 to Thompson, Ramsdell Qualseth, of Lawrence, to help defend health and safety regulations enacted last year for abortion providers. Kansas City-area physicians challenged the rules in federal court and then in state court.
The same law firm also received nearly $131,000 for work on a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against a law restricting private insurance coverage for abortions.
