Listen Here for the actual statement. From the Senate floor. For a transcript please hit "Read More".

State Sen. Dave Schultheis is a Republican and an asshole from Colorado Springs, Colorado. He recently voted against making HIV testing available to pregnant mothers because, he says, "[Mothers should] suffer the consequences of their actions" should they acquire HIV. He went on to say, "What I'm hoping is that, yes, that person may have AIDS, have it seriously as a baby and when they grow up, but the mother will begin to feel guilt as a result of that." I told you he was an asshole. He believes that it is not only acceptable, but beneficial for someone to pass on an HIV infection just so someone may pay for their sins and feel bad about it. I don't even know where to begin to try to understand his logic. Apparently, it's good and holy for an innocent child to suffer for the tenuous sins of the parents. This guy claims to be a Christian, but he seems much more in line with ultra-fundamentalist Muslims. Are stonings in the street next? If you want to write to him and express your derision, and I know you do, follow the links below.

State Capitol
200 E. Colfax Avenue
Denver, CO 80203
Room # 274
Office: (303) 866-4835
Fax: (303) 866-2012


District
PO Box 49282
Colorado Springs, CO 80949-0282

Office: (719) 532-0546
Fax: (719) 532-0546


Email
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

www.daveschultheis.com

I'm tempted to include his home address (I have it) but I don't think it would be wise at this point.

{readmorelink}Read more about Sen. Dave Schultheis, Asshole{/readmorelink}

Here is a transcript of Sen. Dave Schultheis words.

Thank you, Madam President. You know, this was a difficult bill for me. I voted yes in committee on it because of discussions surrounding the fact that — well, let me just basically say this, it basically modifies the communicable disease laws and it requires the health care providers to test pregnant women for HIV unless they opt out. And that’s basically, that’s the main part of this bill. I voted yes on it. I was a little bit troubled with my vote and was just wondering what was bothering me. I woke up the next morning — Thursday morning — at 5 a.m. and I wrestled with this bill for another hour from 5 to 6 and finally came to the conclusion I’m going to be a no vote on this. I’m trying to think through what the role of government is here. And I am not convinced that part of the role of government should be to protect individuals from the negative consequences of their actions.

Sexual promiscuity, we know, causes a lot of problems in our state, one of which, obviously, is the contraction of HIV. And we have other programs that deal with the negative consequences — we put up part of our high schools where we allow students maybe 13 years old who put their child in a small daycare center there.

We do things continually to remove the negative consequences that take place from poor behavior and unacceptable behavior, quite frankly, and I don’t think that’s the role of this body.

As a result of that I finally came to the conclusion I would have to be a no vote on this because this stems from sexual promiscuity for the most part, and I just can’t vote on this bill and I wanted to explain to this body why I was going to be a no vote on this.

and in a follow up speach to this after Wednesdays vote ...

State Sen. Dave Schultheis restated his opposition to a bill requiring HIV tests for pregnant women by claiming that infected babies would cause families to “see the negative consequences of that promiscuity.”

The Colorado Springs Republican with a penchant for foot-in-mouth moments tells The Rocky Mountain News in a follow-up story to Wednesday’s Senate floor controversy:

“What I’m hoping is that, yes, that person may have AIDS, have it seriously as a baby and when they grow up, but the mother will begin to feel guilt as a result of that,” he said. “The family will see the negative consequences of that promiscuity and it may make a number of people over the coming years begin to realize that there are negative consequences and maybe they should adjust their behavior.”

Yes, Schultheis really said he is “hoping” people “have AIDS, have it seriously as a baby …”