Jefferson City, MO — The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ordered a lower-court judge for the second time to dismiss a state suit aimed at barring Planned Parenthood from participating in the state's family-planning program and receiving taxpayer funding.
The state's highest court also asserted Tuesday in its 7-0 opinion that Cole County Circuit Judge Byron L. Kinder had “exceeded his authority” by not dismissing the suit earlier.
As a result, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon's lawyers will once again formally ask Kinder Monday to end the state's long-running suit against Planned Parenthood. Kinder is expected to grant the request.
The lawsuit has kept Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri from collecting about $1.8 million in taxpayer from the state. Without that money, the pro-abortion organization closed a facility in Fulton and cut back operating hours at eight others in the state.
The pro-abortion organization cannot recover the $1.8 million it lost while the case was in legal limbo, Brownlie said, but may be eligible to collect about $160,000 for family planning services it provided but was not paid for. Additional damages for attorney fees and costs of litigation also
could be possible.
But while the state suit soon may be dead, the court fight will continue.
A businessman from St. Charles has filed a new suit as part of the pro-life movement's effort to prevent Planned Parenthood's Missouri affiliates from getting state family-planning money. Daniel Shipley is seeking to block state officials from signing a new contract with Planned Parenthood, the state's largest family-planning participant when it was ousted from the program three years ago.
“It's not over,” said Sam Lee, head of Campaign Life Missouri, one of the pro-life groups aligned with Shipley.
Shipley and other abortion opponents maintain that any state money paid to Planned Parenthood frees up other money for the abortion facilities it operates with private money.
Planned Parenthood's local chief executive, Paula Gianino, claims that's untrue.
“It's unfortunate, it's despicable that anti-abortion groups in this state and Mr. Lee continue their relentless attempts to destroy the state's family-planning program,” she said.
Planned Parenthood, long critical of Kinder, has filed a motion asking that he be replaced as the judge handling Shipley's suit. Kinder declined to comment.
The state Supreme Court initially had ordered Kinder in May to comply with a request from Nixon to dismiss the state suit against Planned Parenthood.
But Kinder asked the court last month to reconsider that order, in part because of Shipley's request to intervene in the state suit.
Allowing him to intervene could have kept the state suit alive. But as part of Tuesday's ruling, the court split 4-3 against that idea. To some, that vote really killed the state suit.
(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)
