Healthcare

How Mike Pence and Indiana Legislators Caused the HIV Outbreak

Written by SK Ashby

This is a great catch by Laura Bassett at Huffington Post.

The epicenter of the historical HIV outbreak in Indiana is Scott County, an area that has been without a facility capable of testing for HIV for several years thanks to the state legislature.

A Planned Parenthood clinic in Scott County was the only facility that provided HIV testing, but the clinic was closed several years ago when, as you may recall, the Republican party declared war on Planned Parenthood in Congress and in state legislatures across the country.

The Scott County clinic and four other Planned Parenthood facilities in the state, all of which provided HIV testing and information, have shuttered since 2011, in large part due to funding cuts to the state's public health infrastructure. [...]

Indiana's GOP-led state legislature was one of the first to declare war against Planned Parenthood in 2011, when it passed a bill that defunded the family planning provider because some of its clinics offer abortion services.

The Planned Parenthood clinic in Scott County did not perform abortions, but it was closed regardless after the legislature cut off state funding.

Governor Mike Pence is now scrambling to control an outbreak that he and his conservative colleagues are at least partially to blame for.

During his time in Congress, Mike Pence himself sponsored an amendment to defund Planned Parenthood after the Republican party took control of the House of Representatives in 2011.