The legal right to abortion doesn’t get much respect in Kansas anymore. But as the state and its attorneys defend new overreaching anti-abortion legislation against the inevitable lawsuits, they at least should be less disdainful of federal judges and open government, our editorial today argues. U.S. District Judge Thomas Marten had to order the state Tuesday in federal court in Wichita to resume the flow of federal family planning funds to Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. Meanwhile, the state is fighting disclosure of how it crafted temporary new rules and regulations specific to abortion providers. The Brownback administration shouldn’t tout the rule of law, transparency and limited government in some matters and then, when it comes to abortion, flout a federal judge and operate as a heavy-handed and secretive regulatory authority.
The Sedgwick County Commission’s 4-1 vote Wednesday to allow concealed-carry in many county facilities was no surprise, despite the opposition of the district attorney. As Commissioner Richard Ranzau said in pushing for the move, the county shouldn’t have been prohibiting guns in all its buildings without a compelling reason, and the past five years of concealed-carry in Kansas have not shown the law to compromise public safety. Still, commissioners did a poor job of letting the public in on the decision making about which county buildings should and shouldn’t allow guns. In addition, Commission Chairman Dave Unruh had told people Wednesday wouldn’t be a public hearing, but he relented at the urging of three commissioners. In the end, only a single speaker (pro-gun) was heard.
There has been a noticeable lack of people defending Gov. Sam Brownback’s decision to veto $700,000 in state funding of the Kansas Arts Commission, which led to a loss of $1.2 million in federal grants. But the Kansas Republican Party finally stepped up, though mostly to mock Democrats. At a pro-arts rally Tuesday in Topeka, House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, said that the loss of state and federal arts funding will cost Kansas 4,600 jobs. Amanda Adkins, chairman of the state GOP, noted Wednesday in a press release that $1.9 million divided by 4,600 jobs would be less than $413.05 a job. “If government spending creates a job for every $413.05 it spends, then the Democrats’ $700 billion stimulus package should have created over 1.6 billion jobs,” she said. The press release did go on to say that “limited state resources should be aimed at the core functions of state government — education, public safety and social services.”
The legal right to abortion doesn’t get much respect in Kansas anymore. But as the state and its attorneys defend new overreaching anti-abortion legislation against the inevitable lawsuits, they at least should be less disdainful of federal judges and open government, our editorial today argues. U.S. District Judge Thomas Marten had to order the state Tuesday in federal court in Wichita to resume the flow of federal family planning funds to Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. Meanwhile, the state is fighting disclosure of how it crafted temporary new rules and regulations specific to abortion providers. The Brownback administration shouldn’t tout the rule of law, transparency and limited government in some matters and then, when it comes to abortion, flout a federal judge and operate as a heavy-handed and secretive regulatory authority.
