Missouri must pay Planned Parenthood $140,000 in legal fees

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A failed bid to shut down Missouri’s lone abortion provider will cost the state $140,000.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Administration Hearing Commissioner Sreenivasa Rao Dandamudi granted on Friday the request by Planned Parenthood for legal fees as well as $6,600 spent on an expert witness.

A four-day trial in October 2019 highlighted the state’s efforts to close the facility by denying it a license to operate based on allegations it had botched abortions.

Planned Parenthood contended the state picked a handful of difficult cases out of thousands of otherwise successful abortions