Topeka ? The Kansas attorney general’s office paid outside lawyers almost $628,000 through April to defend anti-abortion laws enacted last year.

The office says it paid more than $327,000 to Foulston Siefken, a Wichita firm helping defend a budget provision denying federal family planning dollars for non-abortion services to Planned Parenthood. The group has a federal lawsuit against the measure.

The attorney general’s office paid about $193,000 to Thompson, Ramsdell & Qualseth, of Lawrence, to help defend health and safety regulations for abortion providers. Two Kansas City-area physicians challenged the rules first in federal court and then in state court.

The same law firm also received more than $107,000 for work on a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against a law restricting private insurance coverage for elective abortions.