Overview

The Texas State Legislature’s recent and sweeping funding cuts to all family planning organizations – including the complete defunding of Planned Parenthood – has lead Data Revelations to examine five year’s of historical data on sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV / AIDS and suggest what the case count and incidence rates will look like in the near future.

Key Findings

  • Roughly ten percent of Texas’ 254 counties account for 80% of all cases.
  • Within these counties, the incidence rate for STDs is up 28% from 2006.
  • The incidence rate for HIV is up 5%, but for AIDS it is down 31%.
  • The two counties that can boast the largest rate decrease for all diseases tracked in the study are Hays (-13.9%) and Travis (-7.4%).
  • The two counties with the greatest incidence rate increase for all diseases tracked in the study are Jefferson (+122%) and El Paso (+65.5%).
  • There appears to be a strong correlation between the existence of Planned Parenthood locations and decreased incidence rates.
  • We believe that the recent cuts in family planning funding will lead to a large increase in cases in 2012.

Click here for a discussion on how to use these visualizations and how we came to our findings.

Data source: Texas Department of Health Services