Aids: Texas could cut $3 million in spending on HIV and Aids prevention

State budget amendment would redirect that money to abstinence education

(Flickr/Tim Pearce)

Texas could reduce funding for programs aimed at preventing HIV, Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases by $3 million if a Republican-sponsored initiative makes it into the state budget.

That money would be redirected toward abstinence education under the budget amendment, which easily passed the state House on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.

It must also be passed by the state Senate before being added to the budget. The Senate is also under Republican control, though it’s not clear how senators will vote.

The sponsor of the budget amendment, state Representative Stuart Spitzer, who is a doctor, said that he practiced abstinence until marriage and that he hopes schoolchildren follow his example, according to the AP.

In 2013 Texas had the third-highest number of HIV diagnoses in the US and in 2010 the state had the fourth-highest number of HIV-related deaths in the country, according to data from the Centres for Disease Control.

The Texas House Republicans did not stop there, however. They also passed a budget amendment that would prevent schools from distributing sex-education materials from abortion providers.

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