District 4 State Rep. Stuart Spitzer, R-Kaufman, convinced the Texas House of Representatives to divert $3 million from the budget proposal from HIV-prevention education to abstinence-only sexual education programs.

Spitzer, a Tea Party politician who is a general surgeon and a member of the First Baptist Church in Kaufman, cited his own sexual history as evidence of abstinence being an effective tool in preventing sexually-transmitted disease infections. The first term legislator said he remained a virgin until the age of 29 when he married his wife, according to the Texas Observer.

House Democrats fought Spitzer's message, citing statistics showing Texas has the third-highest HIV rate in the nation. Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, argued he advocates abstinence among teenagers, but he believes the message should be supplemented with information about HIV-prevention methods for teenagers who reject the idea of abstinence.

Spitzer's amendment passed 97 to 47.

"Abstinence is the best way to prevent HIV," said Spitzer, who declared on election night when he took the seat away from two-term incumbent Lance Gooden of Terrell that "God in his infinite wisdom has chosen to lead us here to this night of victory."

Spitzer added that his goal is for "everyone to be abstinent until they are married." The legislator is on record as being opposed to same-sex marriage so it is unclear how his plan would apply to gay men and lesbians.

After Spitzer's admendment passed the House, Texas Monthly reported teen pregnancy is high and HIV cases are increasing in the legislator's home district. The publication gave the teenage pregnancy rates by zip code in Spitzer's district, and it noted Kaufman County spends $3.29 million per year on teen pregnancy and Henderson County spends $2.99 million.

Spitzer's legislative office issued a press release calling the media coverage "multitudes of misleading attacks being levied by biased media sources and left-leaning blogs across the nation."

The press release said the legislator's amendment shifted less than 1 percent of the $191.4 million HIV/STD Awareness Education fund budget to abstinence education. The measure increased the abstinence education budget by 28 percent, according to the statement.

The amendment calls for $1.5 million per year for the state's biennial budget.

"If you read the media reports it sounds like defunded HIV/STD programs, when all I did was shift less than 1 percent of their budgets toward a program that will curb the same diseases," Spitzer said. "It amazes me how visceral the attacks on my family and me have been as a result of this effort, and how misinformed people are as to the effects of our amendment."

Texas Observer:  http://www.texasobserver.org/house-defunds-hiv-prevetion-abstinence-education/

Texas Monthly:  http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/dr-spitzer-may-abstain-teens-his-district-dont