Topeka ? The Kansas attorney general’s office has paid outside lawyers $476,000 in defending abortion laws enacted this year.

The office says it has paid nearly $258,000 to a Wichita law firm involved in defending a provision of the state budget that denied federal family planning dollars for non-abortion services to Planned Parenthood. The group is challenging the provision in a federal lawsuit.

The attorney general’s office has paid $138,000 to a Lawrence firm helping the state defend new health and safety regulations for abortion providers. Two Kansas City-area physicians are challenging the rules in both state and federal court.

The same firm also received $80,000 for work in a federal lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union against a law restricting private insurance coverage elective abortions.