David Weldon: “prior to coming to this body, I was a practicing physician. So I used to see a lot of this stuff on a daily basis. I…”

“prior to coming to this body, I was a practicing physician. So I used to see a lot of this stuff on a daily basis. I have to say this program was initiated with the intent of helping to deal with the terrible problem of unwanted pregnancies. The unwanted pregnancy rate has skyrocketed. The abortion rate has skyrocketed. Teenage pregnancy has skyrocketed. This is a dismal failure. I saw an amazing statistic yesterday: The U.S. people get more upset about wasteful government spending than they get upset about violent criminals being let out of jail prematurely. That is the thing that gets them more upset than anything else. Here we are today arguing about whether or not we should continue to fund a program that has been a dismal failure. The abortion rate is up. The teen pregnancy rate is up. The venereal disease rate is up. That is why this program was initiated, and it has not worked. Now we are asked today to continue its funding. I support the Smith-Livingston amendment. Oppose Greenwood.”