Texas Wants to Cut HIV Funding and Teach More About Abstinence

Because it totally makes sense for the state that has the fifth highest teen pregnancy rate in the country, the state of Texas wants to cut funding for programs to prevent HIV and other STIs and boost programs that teach abstinence instead.

Reports AP Online:

Texas would cut $3 million in state funds for programs to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and put that money toward abstinence education under a Republican-sponsored measure advanced by the state House.

The GOP-controlled House approved the measure 97-47 on Tuesday after a contentious debate with Democrats that veered into the unusually personal.

GOP state Rep. Stuart Spitzer, a doctor and the bill’s sponsor, at one point defended the budget amendment by telling the Texas House that he practiced abstinence until marriage. The first-term lawmaker says he hopes schoolchildren follow his example, saying, “What’s good for me is good for a lot of people.”

“What’s good for me is good for a lot of people.”

!!!

Seriously—I don’t want to be dramatic here, but that kind of self-righteous thinking makes me want to throw my computer and faith in humanity into traffic (which I won’t, ’cause I kind of need them both). I mean, for God’s sake—no pun intended—I just covered this yesterday in my interview with Meghan Daum. What’s right for you is what’s right for you—whether we’re talking about if and when to have sex, if and when to have children, and if and when to move the hell out of Texas. And so on.

“Pun,” of course, because Spitzer promotes his Christian faith on his website, and regularly posts about church-y stuff on his Facebook page. I don’t doubt that a medical professional can also be spiritual and religious, but when that doctor is also a politician who puts his morals on a pedestal and has the ability to adversely affect the lives of others—it’s infuriating, to say the least.