Fund Rejected for Prostitutes’ AIDS Tests in Nevada

A state bid to appropriate $139,000 to start a mandatory AIDS testing program for about 400 prostitutes in Nevada’s licensed bordellos has been rejected by the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee.

Three separate motions to approve the money, or at least part of it, were voted down Friday by the lawmakers in what state Health Division Administrator Catherine Lowe termed a refusal to pay for what the brothel industry itself should finance.

“I think (the committee) took a conservative view of a very complex question and saw the responsibility being with the business owner to bear the costs,” Lowe explained.

Another concern of the legislators was that the tests would not reach “street” prostitutes operating in areas of Nevada where prostitution is illegal, including Las Vegas and Reno.