A federal appeals court has upheld a judge's order that Missouri taxpayers pay more than $156,000 to cover Planned Parenthood's legal bills tied to a legal dispute over a clinic's abortion license.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday affirmed U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey's August 2016 decision that the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services must pay the attorneys' fees and expenses incurred by what now is Planned Parenthood Great Plains.
Laughrey also blocked the state from revoking the Columbia clinic's abortion license.
The legal fight over the clinic came after the department warned it would revoke its license when its only doctor performing abortions — a nonsurgical type, induced with a pill — lost needed admitting privileges with University of Missouri Health Care in 2015.