TN: Shelby Co. finally awards Title X money to private agency....not PP ...last of the TN counties....

Did Shelby County and Yvonne Madlock just blink??? Commercial Appeal writes 

[Shelby] County government leaders have decided not to contract with the local Planned Parenthood organization to provide family planning services for low-income people. Instead, Christ Community Health Services has been chosen for the $397,900 contract, Shelby County Health Department director Yvonne Madlock confirmed Tuesday.

The contract must still be approved by the County Commission. Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell hopes to have it before that board by the end of September.

This is the Title X monies from the federal govt. for family planning services. You may recall that previous to this announcement, Shelby County was the only hold out with Madlock  stating she did not have the capacity to provide these services and would outsource it  not ruling out PP who routinely got this $$ in the past.. She acknowledged the controversy generated around this but the mayor insists that the decision was not politics. 

PP does not have immediate comment.  Their Facebook is mum on this as well and they are concentrating on repairing their brand and having friendlies express their indignation via comments insinuating that Memphis will not be served with this new arrangement. However as one commenter states:

A Moment of Truth writes
CCHS has 7 clinics in Memphis all in underserved parts of Memphis. This will make these much needed services much more accessible to the residents that desperately need them. This decision is a win/win for our city and its residents.

They are also focusing on the $75 K they got funneled to them Shelby County Health Dept. to do STD  testing . Shelby county was awarded the grant by  CDC because it  ranked fifteenth of all counties in the U.S. for symptomatic syphilis. Shelby County has the highest number of newly-diagnosed syphilis cases in Tennessee, and the infection rate for all stages of syphilis is five times higher in Shelby County than in the U.S. overall. Of course, PP mocks abstinence education but their past efforts at sex ed and  family planning certainly cannot be declared successful with the STD and teen pregnancy rate garnering national attention.

PP free for TN...sounds like a good slogan for us.