Pennsylvania scraps heightened criminal sentences for people living with HIV
Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro (Image: Getty Images)
Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro has signed Senate Bill 45, removing HIV from the state’s criminal code and ending HIV-specific sentencing enhancements that could increase charges for people living with HIV.
Shapiro signed the bill on 20 July as part of a wider package of legislation.
Before SB45, people charged with prostitution-related offences could face harsher penalties if they were HIV-positive. While such cases were typically misdemeanours, the enhancement meant someone living with HIV could be charged with a felony punishable by up to a seven-year prison sentence.
Advocates have long argued that HIV-specific criminal penalties do not improve public safety and instead deepen stigma, including by discouraging testing and treatment. Ronda Goldfein told the Pennsylvania Capital-Star: “Criminal penalties for living with HIV have never served an effective law enforcement purpose,” adding: “No credible research has ever linked penalties with reduction in HIV transmission.”
Dr Jay Kostman also linked HIV criminalisation to stigma and poorer health outcomes, saying: “That stigma discouraged people from getting tested and treated, fuelling the epidemic, particularly among marginalised populations,” adding: “We know today that when people living with HIV are taking medications and have an undetectable level of virus in their blood, they can’t transmit the virus to other people. Therefore, there’s no scientific basis for criminalising HIV.”
How HIV criminalisation spread
HIV-specific criminal laws and sentencing enhancements spread across many US states in the 1990s, after Congress passed the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, linking HIV/AIDS funding to laws criminalising knowingly exposing others to HIV through sexual activity.
Congress removed those funding requirements in 2000, but 26 states still have laws criminalising HIV transmission or perceived exposure and/or mandating HIV-specific sentencing enhancements. In four states, such laws may require sex offender registration, as per the Movement Advancement Project.
Advocates praise the repeal
Josh Shapiro is the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, elected in 2022 after serving as the state’s attorney general. He has been publicly supportive of LGBTQ+ rights in Pennsylvania politics, including backing non-discrimination protections and opposing anti-LGBTQ measures.
In a 26 July statement, Tito Valdes, Director of LGBTQ+ Affairs with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, called Shapiro’s signing of SB45 “an important step toward ending outdated policies rooted in fear and stigma rather than science”. Valdes added: “No one should face harsher treatment under the law because they are living with HIV,” and said: “We applaud Governor Shapiro and the advocates who worked for years to make this change possible, and remain committed to advancing policies that promote dignity, equity, and public health for all Philadelphians.”
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