MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A conservative legal group has filed a lawsuit alleging that Minnesota taxpayers are being wrongfully charged for elective abortions.

The Alliance Defending Freedom says state law and court decisions allow Minnesota to pay for abortions for indigent women only if they’re necessary for therapeutic reasons.

The lawsuit says government figures show that Minnesota taxpayers paid for about 47,000 abortions on indigent women from 1999 through 2011. But it also claims the data indicate that — at most — only about 10,000 of those abortions might have been medically necessary. The lawsuit says that means the state paid for 37,000 abortions without legal authority.

The lawsuit also claims a disproportionate number of these abortions are performed on African-American women.

A Department of Human Services spokeswoman says they’re checking on the lawsuit.

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