A fascinating Washington Post report describes how much money anti-abortion advocates and taxpayers are spending, and losing, on defending abortion restriction legislation in court. By the Post’s count, it’s “almost $10 million” in the last four years. Anti-abortion activists often lose those cases because of Roe v. Wade. The state ends up essentially reimbursing the pro-abortion side, be it Planned Parenthood or the Center for Reproductive Rights, for their attorneys’ fees as a result “of a special provision that allows the courts to order reimbursement to people who successfully challenge laws that violate civil rights.” The fees are anywhere from $98,625 to $1.7 million, and one reimbursement was nearly double that.
The piece concludes with a pro-abortion attorney inferring that the state shouldn’t be trying to pass restrictions on abortions, particularly when the legal challenges cost taxpayer money:
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“The saddest part is that these states are spending hard-earned taxpayer money defending lawsuits,” Ma said, “when they could be using those funds to support their citizens.”
To be clear, lawsuits pitting the state against a large abortion giant such as Planned Parenthood are expensive. But let’s do away with the pretense that suddenly abortion advocates care about protecting taxpayer dollars, or that fighting to defend abortion restriction legislation (which up to 75% of Americans support) isn’t worth the money.
Let’s break down the numbers. The report says: “In the past four years, taxpayers in states trying to restrict abortion access have paid almost $10 million in attorney fees for abortion providers. That price tag is likely to keep growing as more abortion restrictions are challenged, including three in federal courts today.” Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for Reproductive Rights are the groups that end up fighting and winning those lawsuits and getting reimbursed for their legal fees.
The most recent reimbursement came from a federal judge in Texas who awarded $2.3 million to attorneys who blocked a new state law to limit abortions. The lawyers sought twice that much. After the state protested, a judge ordered a more “fair” amount be reimbursed, which still had attorneys making $400 per hour.
The state legislature passes these restrictions. These cases lose because federal judges feel obliged to follow the Roe v. Wade precedent (overturning this precedent is the whole point of many of the lawsuits). So why should taxpayers have to pay the cost?
Planned Parenthood does not fight these cases with any naiveté. In their 2017-2018 annual report, they said they filed “nine new lawsuits.” If they won these, based on the hours and rate in the Texas case, they’d be reimbursed $20 million. This is from a group who raked in $1.5 billion in taxpayer subsidies from 2013 to 2015.
The legal costs for taxpayers are extravagant, but up until Planned Parenthood opted out of Trump’s revised Title X program, they were essentially double-dipping from taxpayers. This didn’t seem to bother anyone until multiple states decided to try to limit abortion.
The Post story does point out that some states are trying to reduce the financial burden by including a “trigger” provision that abortion restriction laws don’t go into effect until a similar law is upheld in another state or if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.
It’s tempting to blame these expenses on the anti-abortion movement. But it’s just an example of what happens when people realize something such as Roe v. Wade is wrong and try to fight back with little recourse until the law is changed.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
