Advice free, lawsuits aren't

In the realm of politics, some things don't add up.

Idaho legislators have followed Nebraska's lead in summoning support for increasingly restrictive abortion laws. While citizens are widely split on the topic in general, what is perplexing is not the Idaho Legislature's fixation on issues that may be better suited for church pews than legislative seats, but its fiscal hypocrisy.

Banning abortions after 20-week pregnancies might go a long way in binding kindred spirits more closely, but it is also likely to end up costing conservatives - and every other state taxpayer - dearly. Already, the Idaho Attorney General's office has warned legislators that the bill is unconstitutional. Lawsuits are virtually guaranteed, yet legislators armed with that information have surrendered fiscal responsibility for something else.

In the past decade, Idaho taxpayers have spent three quarters of a million dollars defending restrictive abortion laws that were routinely stricken down by the courts. Those costly rulings prompted legislative leaders to require any abortion-related legislation be reviewed by the attorney general.

So the AG's office said the measure is "unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution insofar as it proscribes some non-therapeutic abortions even before a fetus has reached viability."

Quite simply, if the legislation represents the will of the people and the attorney general's office said the measure would hold up under the scrutiny of the courts, supporters would have a defensible argument. But defying the advice of the state's top legal authority, unduly risking tremendous cost at taxpayer expense while every state budget is being slashed and services curtailed, doesn't add up. If legislators have no intention of heeding the AG's findings, the least they can do is not bother to ask in the first place.