Alabama to pay Planned Parenthoods Legal Fees After Trying to Defund It

[Stuckinthebush]

Oh, snap!

Not only have Alabama's attempts to defund Planned Parenthood Southeast been blocked by the courts, Alabama taxpayers will also have to foot the bill in the more than $51,000 in legal fees for the reproductive health organization, the Montgomery Advertiser reported, under a settlement filed in federal court Monday morning. The agreement still must be approved by a U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.

Republican Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (pictured above) was one of a number of elected officials who sought to defund Planned Parenthood by cutting off Medicaid funding to clinics after a series of "sting" videos asserted the organization was illegally profiting off the of the sale of aborted fetal tissue. (Planned Parenthood has denied the claim that it is profiting from donation programs, and says reimbursement fees clinics receive for storage and staffing costs are legal.)

However, Thompson issued a preliminary junction last month that halted the state's move to cancel its Planned Parenthood Medicaid contract after the Planned Parenthood Southeast sued the state over the defund attempt.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/alabama-legal-fees-planned-parenthood

[reflection]

1. Imagine

what good could have been done with that $51,000.

[Whiskeytide]

2. Hey - good WAS done ...

1. Lawyers for the right side got paid (full disclosure - I'm a lawyer) ,

and

2. Such an award might (might) deter other or future such BS.

It's not like the right wing is going to stop this crap on their own. The alternative is to just let it go - and that's not an option. I prefer they fight - and make the ass-clowns pay for it.

Good judge. Not enough of them, unfortunately.

[reflection]

3. It's like judgements against rogue cops.

Until they're made to pay personally, there's no deterrence, unfortunately.