Even though Rick Perry has received his fair share of criticism for his actions as Governor of Texas, there are some believe that his successor, Greg Abbott, has revealed himself to have even “crazier” ideas. Examples include appointing someone who was homeschooled by Christian parents to oversee the state’s public education system and organizing the state’s guard troops to ensure that president Obama doesn’t “invade” Texas during recent military exercises. A recent investigation has uncovered an even more troubling action on Abbott’s part: shaping medical policy based on advice from Scientologists.
Governor Abbott has recently vetoed a bipartisan bill which would give more resources to medical professionals that help residents dealing with mental health problems. The bill in question was widely popular, supported by many large medical associations in the state and both political parties.
Instead, Abbott killed the bill after receiving information from a Scientology group which believes that mental illnesses are a myth and that treating them causes more harm than good for the patients. Scientology, based on the writings of its founder L. Ron Hubbard, is strongly opposed to psychiatry in all its form and even compares mental health professionals to “terrorists” in some of its publications.
One of the reasons why the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, the group run by Scientologists, opposed the bill is because it contained a provision that would have prevented patients from refusing mental health care if they were determined by physicians to be a danger to themselves or to others.