Health department firm on family planning money

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Little has changed at the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services when it comes to the agency's stand on funding for Planned Parenthood.

In 1999, the department awarded contracts to Planned Parenthood that were immediately challenged in court because anti-abortion forces claimed the funding was in violation of carefully worded restrictions lawmakers put into a spending bill.

Initially, a Cole County circuit judge ruled that Planned Parenthood must give the money back.

Maureen Dempsey, then director of the health department, countered by freezing all family planning funding. In her opinion, the court ruling affected all providers covered under a department contract. The funding eventually resumed for other family planning contractors, but the battle lines had been drawn.

Three years later, the lawsuit challenging Planned Parenthood funding ended without resolution of the key question: Can the Legislature restrict family planning funding to the state's largest abortion provider?

That provided the health department with the same opportunity it had in 1999. And that opportunity was seized.

Late last month, the department quietly awarded Planned Parenthood nearly $600,000 for family planning services.

Despite another pending legal challenge to the Planned Parenthood funding, the Democratic attorney general's and governor's offices are pleased with where things stand.

"The attorney general's office has previously said that the director's position is defensible," said Chuck Hatfield, an assistant attorney general. "The department of health has consistently held the position that their contracts reflect what the Legislature passed."

Attorney General Jay Nixon will represent the department in an upcoming lawsuit that mirrors the one that just ended.

Mary Still, Gov. Bob Holden's spokeswoman who previously worked for Nixon, said the governor supports the health department's decision to give money to Planned Parenthood.

Still said the governor's office reviewed the department's decision on the Planned Parenthood contracts to ensure that all legal impediments to the funding had been cleared.

"I think he puts the confidence in the department to make the appropriate choice about who the best provider is," Still said. "He supports Planned Parenthood's right to receive state funding if the department judges that they are the best provider."

The anti-abortion majority in the Legislature, which has overwhelmingly backed restrictions on Planned Parenthood over the years, doesn't believe that the health department made the right decision.

Rep. Gary Burton, a longtime abortion opponent, said the health department's recent funding decision is another example of an agency ignoring the wishes of the Legislature.

"I think they are as arrogant as they ever have been," said Burton, R-Carl Junction. "I hope that the new Legislature will figure out a way to let the department of health know that they are very displeased with the decision on this."

Burton, along with many members of the anti-abortion majority, won't be returning to Jefferson City next year because of term limits. But Burton thinks the new crop of legislators will continue the fight against funding for Planned Parenthood.

"I would volunteer to come up there and educate new legislators about the issue," Burton said. "There are two things that can be done. One is to cut all family planning funding. The other is to try and go back through the court system."