Missouri governor cuts cancer-screening funds

Missouri's governor has rescinded a years-long contract with Planned Parenthood to fund cervical and breast cancer screening to low-income women because "Patients should not have to go to an abortion clinic to access lifesaving tests," Blunt said in a written statement.

Except for the fact that the affected clinics don't even provide abortions. They do, however, provide cervical and breast cancer screenings -- about 1,500 a year.

Blunt's timing is awful. Missouri is one of several states considering a bill to make the HPV vaccine (which prevents some types of cervical cancer) a school-entry requirement.

If they want to defuse some of the tension over the HPV vaccine, they should seriously step up the public funding for cervical cancer screenings and regular reproductive health care for low-income women.