By AP/KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – After three years of legal challenges by abortion opponents, Planned Parenthood has been awarded about 600-thousand dollars in state contracts for family planning services.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services contracts awarded late last month include $352,000 to Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and more than $243,000 to Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region.
But that could change. A lawsuit seeking to stop state money from going to Planned Parenthood is pending in Cole County Circuit Court.
In 1999, the judge barred Planned Parenthood from getting state money for family planning and ordered the groups to pay it back.
That started a series of legal challenges that ended earlier this summer.