Texas Strips Planned Parenthood Of HIV Prevention Funding Because ... Abortion

Leave it to Texas … again.

The state has dealt yet another blow to Planned Parenthood this week by stopping more than half a million dollars in federal funding that the organization uses for HIV prevention and screening in the Greater Houston area.

Prevention of HIV; screening for HIV. No more.

That $600,000 that Planned Parenthood gets every year comes from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but because it is administered by state health officials, they can choose to end it.

So, in the Houston area, no more HIV testing, no more counseling, no more condom distribution and no more referral services to connect anyone who has the virus with specialized care. No explanation given.

And this latest attack on Planned Parenthood in Texas comes on the heels of the state's decision to kick Planned Parenthood out of the Medicaid program. In October, state health officials announced they intend to block the $3.1 million in Medicaid reimbursements that PP receives every year for the thousands and thousands of patients who use their clinics for cancer screenings, HIV tests, contraceptives and other preventative health services.

So, again, no HIV tests, no cancer screenings, no contraceptives, no preventative healthcare in Texas from Planned Parenthood because … abortion. It’s that simple.

State health department Inspector General Stuart Bowen says a recent string of videos shot by undercover anti-abortion activists is undisputed evidence that Planned Parenthood is “no longer capable of performing medical services in a professionally competent, safe, legal, and ethical manner.”

And, since this is Texas … where the state Legislature is rabidly anti-choice, and where they punish anything  even remotely tied to pro-choice efforts … those same state health officials have banned organizations from receiving state funds to promote abstinence to teenagers if those groups operate within 1,000 feet of an abortion provider, like Planned Parenthood, or have a name that sounds at all similar to any abortion provider, affiliate or “any entity that engages in pro-abortion advocacy.”

So, abstinence education is out, too. And so is HIV education, prevention, testing and counseling. And all because three-percent of Planned Parenthood’s services allow a woman the right to choose what she wants to do with her body. 

Houston Press