Texas Gov Blames Mental Illness for Uvalde After Sending Mental Health Funds to the Border

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has had a lot to say about the importance of addressing mental health issues in the wake of the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and 2 teachers were shot dead.

“We as a state, we as a society need to do a better job with mental health,” the GOP governor told a press conference last week. “We as a government need to find a way to target that mental health challenge and to do something about it.”

But Abbott’s money isn’t where his mouth is. 

In April, Abbott diverted $211 million from the department that oversees the state’s mental health issues in order to allocate almost $500 million to Operation Lone Star, the state’s new border security program. According to Abbott’s own announcement, no other state agency saw more funds redirected toward Operation Lone Star than the Health and Human Services Commission, which contracts with 37 local mental health authorities across Texas. Meanwhile, Texas ranked last among 50 states in the 2021 State of Mental Health in America report.  

Abbott’s critics on the left have accused him of avoiding the real issue—gun control—while offering vague bromides about mental health. Those critics include Democratic Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde and told local Texas TV station KXXV that he wasn’t invited to Abbott’s press conference on Wednesday. 

“This bullshit you get from this guy about mental health and evil,” Gutierrez said. “The only evil that exists is when the leader of this state has a problem and is a problem of epic proportions.”

Abbott’s press conference was interrupted by his Democratic opponent in the upcoming gubernatorial election, Beto O’Rourke, who accused the governor of failing to take action in a heated, profanity-laced exchange, and also blamed Abbott for not doing enough to boost funding for mental health.

“He's refused to expand Medicaid, which would bring $10 billion a year, including mental health care access for people who need it,” O'Rourke said outside the press conference after he was escorted out by security, according to ABC. “He’s refused to champion red-flag laws... He’s refused to support safe-storage laws so young people cannot get their hands on their parents’ weapons.” 

Abbott’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment about the state’s mental health budget and programs. But in a recent statement to ABC News, Abbott’s press secretary, Renae Eze, insisted the governor did not cut any funding from mental health services, and simply transferred money that wasn’t going to be used. 

“This is a completely inaccurate, unsubstantiated narrative being spun by those trying to politicize a tragedy,” Eze wrote. “Governor Abbott did not, in no uncertain terms, cut funding from mental health services being provided for Texans. Governor Abbott has always worked diligently to fully fund and expand mental health programs and services for Texans.”

Eze said that the Health & Human Services Commission requested to transfer funds because otherwise, they would lapse at the end of the fiscal year.

Texas’ mental health crisis was the subject of a series of investigative articles by the Houston Chronicle, which concluded that funding cuts in the mid-2000s contributed to it.

The investigation found that “Texas’ mental health system is strained beyond capacity, with waitlists for hospital beds that stretch on for sometimes up to a year. The state’s lack of oversight is so extreme that officials were unable to say which private hospitals received state funds for bed space to help reduce the waitlist.”

The 18-year-old Uvalde shooter was not diagnosed with mental illness before his rampage last week, and did not have a criminal record. He purchased powerful AR-15 rifles legally shortly after his 18th birthday. 

After the shooting, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut took to the Senate floor to give a fiery speech urging his colleagues to take action on gun control. 

“Spare me the bullshit about mental illness. We don’t have any more mental illness than any other country in the world,” Murphy said. “We’re an outlier when it comes to access to firearms and the ability of criminals and very sick people to get their hands on firearms. That’s what makes America different.”