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Legislator nicknames Columbia "Infanticide City"

JEFFERSON CITY - Move over Tigertown. Some members of the legislature have nicknamed Columbia, "Infanticide City."

The monniker, which Rep. Jim Murphy, R-St. Louis County, has coined along with other a few other anonymous Republican representatives, resulted from the override of last year's partial birth abortion bill.

During the veto session last fall, Columbia's entire legislative delegation, all of whom are Democrats, voted to sustain Gov. Mel Carnahan's veto of the bill.

"Columbia is the only unified area that supported the governor," said Murphy, a member of the legislature for the past 18 years. "So everyone now looks at Columbia as a representative for infanticide."

In this week's edition of the pamphlet "Capitol Report," which Murphy distributes to every legislator, he says the nickname of "Infanticide City" may be inappropriate to some, but it "just goes to show you what welfare can cause," since "the city of Columbia receives more subsidies per person than any other area in Missouri."