LEGISLATORS GET HELP IN ABORTION-FUNDING FIGHT

Another year, another annual state budget, another fight over funding Planned Parenthood. As long as Mel Carnahan is governor, it appears we'll have these battles, given his determination to shovel money at the state's largest abortionist, as against the General Assembly, populated as it is by a lopsided pro-life majority. Previous governors never funded Planned Parenthood.

This year, at least, might see a different turn of events from last year, when Attorney General Jay Nixon simply failed to uphold his constitutional duty to defend state statutes. Nixon went into the court of U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan seeking a declaratory judgment that the appropriations statute passed by the Legislature, which sought to deny Planned Parenthood the funding, was unconstitutional. This he got from the judge. Left an open question was this: Who will defend the laws passed by the General Assembly?

Lawmakers from both parties, upset with their lack of legal representation last year, secured from Nixon a guarantee that he would hire a special counsel to defend the statute they had passed. It is a shame that it took this to secure legal representation that the state should have in any case, but that is where we are. The outside counsel is competent in appeals, and one can always hope.