‘Pro-life’ Texas Republicans just cut funding for HIV prevention in their state

Texas recently cut Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid Funding and raided clinics, and now they are shutting down their HIV prevention programs. According to The Texas Tribune, PP received word that the Texas Department of Health Services would not renew its contract to continue prevention services.

This grant, which Planned Parenthood has received since 1988, is federally funded through the CDC but is distributed by the state. The grant has been used to distribute condoms and for HIV counseling and testing. In the last year alone, it’s funded over 100,000 HIV tests and helped identify over 1,1oo people with HIV. The spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast told the Tribune: 

“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.”

Anti-abortion pundits and supporters have rallied around the anti-Planned Parenthood propaganda videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, which falsely accuses PP of harvesting fetal body parts. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, inspired by the videos, admitted that he considers closing clinics to be a mission. After ending PP’s Medicare funding and leaving large numbers of vulnerable people in his state without care, Abbott celebrated his moral victory in a press release.

“…Ending the Medicaid participation of Planned Parenthood affiliates in the State of Texas is another step in providing greater access to safe healthcare for women while protecting our most vulnerable – the unborn.”

Apparently denying the entire population of Texas access to lifesaving medical care and HIV testing and prevention is doing the unborn a great service. Go figure. I guess when the unborn become born they are invulnerable and no longer require any kind of health care. Thanks Greg Abbott. It remains unclear what the state of Texas will do with this funding, or if and exactly how they will work to fill in the gap in life saving care they’ve created.

Featured image via Flickr