Members of the Missouri House move through a traditionally troublesome part of the budget without much rancor this year. For the past six years, House Bill 10 has created controversy as anti-abortion lawmakers seek to cut Planned Parenthood out of the nearly $6-and-a-half Million family planning budget. This year, pro-choice lawmakers fail in their attempt to remove restrictions pro-life legislators put in the bill last year. Representative Joan Bray of St. Louis made the motion and is critical of moves to legislate in the state budget. Bray says the state has spent more than a million dollars defending the language in court. Yet Representative Gary Burton of Joplin counters it’s the Director of Health who has sparked costly lawsuits by refusing to obey the law and who left women without care when she cancelled contracts after losing in court. A court ruling upholding the restrictive budget language has been appealed.
