After Texas Cut Planned Parenthood’s Program, Houston Hasn’t Tested A Single Person For HIV

“Think of all the cases of HIV that would’ve been prevented had the people who did this, and do it well, still been testing.”

From: NewNowNext

 If you’ve been even moderately following the news, you know that Planned Parenthood is under attack by Republicans who want to paint the organization as an army of rabid baby-killers. (Never mind that most of PP’s services have nothing to do with abortions.)

The assault on Planned Parenthood doesn’t just threaten women’s reproductive health, it endangers those living with or at risk from HIV/AIDS.

 In December, Texas legislators ended the state’s HIV-prevention contract with Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast and decided to put the responsibility in someone else’s hands. But as the Texas Observer reports, some parts of the state still haven’t conducted a single HIV test—or done anything else—since the changeover.

The $600,000 PPGC received from the Texas Department of State Health Services went toward HIV education, prevention and, of course, testing. That money now goes to the local health departments in Galveston, Fort Bend and Harris Counties.

Harris County, which includes the city of Houston, now receives $250,000 annually to address HIV/AIDS. But in the five-plus months since the county took over the contract, it hasn’t administered a single HIV test.

According to the Observer Planned Parenthood conducted 2,900 HIV tests and handed out 165,000 condoms in that same time frame.

Houston is the fourth largest city in the U.S., and home to one in four new HIV diagnoses in Texas—double the state average. (Only Dallas has a higher rate.) It’s also home to an estimated 23,000 residents living with HIV.

Oh, and by the way, Texas has the third-highest number of HIV diagnoses in the nation.

“Think of all the cases of HIV that would’ve been prevented had the people who did this, and do it well, still been testing,” said state Representative Jessica Farrar, (D-Houston). “[Ending the contract with PPGC] was a pure political move and something you don’t do to people’s health.”

Don’t see the connection? The HIV epidemic in Austin, Indiana, began after the only HIV-testing clinic, a Planned Parenthood office, was closed due to budget cuts.

So the next time you wonder what reproductive rights and Planned Parenthood have to do with you, think again.