Van de Kamp to Quit Defending Abortion Funding Curb

After a decade of court rulings upholding Medi-Cal abortions for poor women, Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp is refusing to represent Gov. George Deukmejian in defense of a new attempt to restrict abortion funding.

“There comes a point when as attorney general you have to say professionally there are no arguments available on this particular case any longer,” Chief Assistant Atty. Gen. Richard Martland said Wednesday.

He confirmed an account in the Daily Journal legal newspapers in Los Angeles and San Francisco about Van de Kamp’s withdrawal from the case.

The action means that the budget restrictions will be defended by lawyers in Deukmejian’s Department of Health Services. The restrictions have been blocked from taking effect by a state appeals court, which struck down identical restrictions as unconstitutional last year.

It is the first time that Van de Kamp, a Democrat who became attorney general in 1983, has refused to defend the state against a lawsuit by abortion-rights groups challenging the funding restrictions.

But Van de Kamp has declined to defend the state on other issues three times, once when the Republican governor opposed federal protection of North Coast “wild rivers,” later when the governor’s Fish and Game Department supported the use of lead shot by duck hunters, and in a current dispute over Deukmejian’s exclusion of numerous chemicals from regulation as toxic substances under a 1986 voter initiative.

Van de Kamp, widely mentioned as a Democratic contender for governor in 1990, has had a policy of representing the state in all cases unless he finds no credible legal argument in the case--a contrast with Deukmejian, his predecessor as attorney general, who at times refused to defend laws because he disagreed with them.

Some abortion-rights advocates have been critical of Van de Kamp’s past legal defense of the Medi-Cal funding restrictions and his ongoing defense of a state law, blocked by the courts, that would require consent from parents or a judge for a minor’s abortion. Outside court, the attorney general has supported abortion rights.

There was no immediate comment Wednesday from Deukmejian’s office.

The 1988-89 budget signed by Deukmejian would allow state-funded abortions only in a few types of cases. It would cover an abortion if needed to save the woman’s life; if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest reported to authorities; if the woman was under 18 and had notified her parents, or if the fetus was severely deformed.