JEFFERSON CITY - An attempt by pro-abortion extremist Attorney General Jay Nixon to protect abortion clinics has failed in court, and taxpayers are set to gain $668,500 wrongfully paid to Missouri?s two branches of Planned Parenthood.

?This is a great day for taxpayers and the rule of law, but a sorry day for Old Way Jay Nixon, who has spent years running away from doing his job, which was to stand up to the abortion on demand lobby,? said Missouri Republican Party Spokesman John Hancock. ?Now, a private citizen has won the case that Nixon tried to kill.?

Rather than oppose the abortion lobby in court, Nixon refused to defend the Missouri law that forbids family planning money for organizations that provide abortions. Instead, Nixon chose to defend payments by the Holden-era Health Department, which claimed the payments were appropriate.

A pro-life citizen of St. Charles County stepped in to perform Nixon?s taxpayer-funded job. Now, the taxpayer, Daniel Shipley, has won a circuit court judgment for taxpayers of $668,500 which Planned Parenthood is to repay the state. Although the Holden Administration claimed the payments were legal and the state law unsound, Ray County Circuit Judge Werner Moentmann has ruled for Missouri taxpayers. The judge?s ruling, made in Cole County, is that Holden and Nixon were wrong, the Legislature was correct, and Planned Parenthood must repay past funds.

Hancock said: ?When Bob Holden?s agency defied the plain law and paid money to Planned Parenthood, in spite of the no-abortion rule for taxpayer dollars, Jay Nixon sided with Holden and the abortion clinics. He defended the Holden position with taxpayer dollars, and then used other taxpayer dollars to hire a firm to defend the statute.

?Then, in yet another bizarre twist, the State Supreme Court ruled that Nixon was in a conflict of interest, and Nixon dropped the case, in yet another attempt to enable this pro abortion group to hang onto its ?family planning? money from Bob Holden?s Administration.

?Now, a private citizen has done Nixon?s job after Nixon wouldn?t, stepping to prosecute the case, and winning $668,850 that Nixon hoped to leave in the hands of the pro abortion lobby.

?So, despite the best efforts of Jay Nixon and Planned Parenthood, this considerable sum of money is to be returned to taxpayers. Planned Parenthood says it will appeal. Since a private citizen has taken on the work that Nixon is paid to do, maybe Nixon now will try to curry favor with the pro-abortion crowd by showing up as Planned Parenthood?s unpaid lawyer. If he wants to change his ways and show a little respect for the taxpayers, he should volunteer his time only during his lunch hour.?