HIV is a very prevalent problem in today's society and many organizations are collectively trying to lessen its negative effects. Unfortunately, the government of Texas has just recently decided to cut funding for the anti-HIV efforts of the Texas chapter of Planned Parenthood in order to defund the organization entirely.
According to the Examiner, the Texas Department of State Health will not renew a contract, worth more or less $600,000 a year, to fund the Planned Parenthood HIV Prevention Program. This comes as a big surprise considering how the program has been in place since 1988.
To put into perspective, the magnitude of this loss, Rochelle Tafolla, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast has come out and said, "I don't know who else is going to fill that gap, and I don't know if anyone can, frankly." Tafolla has also stated, "Every time the state cuts these programs in an attempt to score political points...the true victims here are tens of thousands of women and men who no longer have access to health care that they need."
In a report posted by Think Progress, it is stated that Planned Parenthood's preventative measures for HIV have identified over a thousand cases of the disease from more than 138,000 tests. But because the Hyde Amendment prevents tax dollars from being used for abortion services, Planned Parenthood had to ask for funding for their STD testing services so they can fund their other services themselves. Other states have also defunded Planned Parenthood in order to decrease the number of abortions in the United States.
The Texas government has already made several moves to defund Planned Parenthood. In fact, Texas officials made the executive decision to remove Planned Parenthood services from their Medicaid program last October. Another case of this occurred last June wherein Planned Parenthood was banned from joining a state-wide program to screen low-income women for breast and cervical cancer.
