GOP Brings HIV To IN, WI Next!

By Jeff Simpson 

Republican test kitchen, Indiana has already been working to defund Planned Parenthood.   They passed a law that defunded Planned Parenthood, because some of them offered abortion services.

Luckily for some women in Indiana, a judge blocked this law from taking effect,  However, the Republicans in Indiana were able to slash funding, which with rising health care costs, has caused a few rural Planned Parenthood offices to close.

In 2005, Planned Parenthood of Indiana received a total of $3.3 million in funding from government contracts and grants. By 2014, that funding had dropped to $1.9 million. Five of Planned Parenthood’s smaller clinics in the state -- the health centers in Scottsburg, Madison, Richmond, Bedford and Warsaw -- were unable to keep up with the growing technology costs that were necessary to remain competitive as a medical provider. All five clinics that were forced to close had offered HIV testing. None had offered abortions.

What happens when we mix Hard Right Republican policies with the real world?   It usually turns into trouble for the people of America:

 Scott County, Indiana, the center of an exploding HIV outbreak, has been without an HIV testing center since early 2013, when the sole provider -- a Planned Parenthood clinic -- was forced to close its doors. The clinic did not offer abortion services.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. Those cuts came amid a national and local political campaign to demonize the health care provider. Now, the state is scrambling to erect pop-up clinics to combat an unprecedented HIV epidemic caused by intravenous drug use.
The fact that Scott County was "without a testing facility until a few weeks ago is a glaring example of the kind of public health crisis that results when prevention and testing are left unfunded," said Patti Stauffer, Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky's vice president for public policy

But wait there is more:

In 2011, Planned Parenthood ran five rural clinics in Indiana. They tested for HIV and offered prevention, intervention and counseling for better health. The one in Scott County performed no abortions.
Mothers-to-be in Scott County must drive 50 miles to visit a gynecologist or an obstetrician. That's not an isolated insight. Of Indiana's 92 counties, Scott County has ranked 92nd in unhealthiness for five straight years.
Fewer high school kids there go to college than anywhere else in the state. There is one mental health provider for every 3,500 residents.
There is one physician in town. He saw the HIV outbreak coming and begged the state for help. None came.

How exactly is it "pro-life" to make a pregnant woman living in poverty drive over 50 miles to see a gynecologist?  

While the Republicans, due to long debunked videos,  are fighting each other to decide who can punish Planned Parenthood the most,   What better way to play to their hardcore pseudo Christian base?

While they do that, women are suffering and dying.



Are you ready for this story to come to Wisconsin? Where will it hit first?  Rusk County?  Monroe County?  Sawyer County?  or maybe Washington County!

How long do we have?

The Legislature was too preoccupied before 2013 trying to defund Planned Parenthood and finally succeeded despite court objections.
Scott County has been without an HIV testing center for two years. That's how long it took the epidemic to flourish.

Instead of naming the outbreak(when it gets here) the WI HIV outbreak of 2017, maybe we can name it the "Common Sense Pro-Life Conservative Values" outbreak,  

Sorry Wisconsin women, you get sick, or pregnant you are on your own!