The Fine Print Blog

by Catherine Hanssens
CHLP Executive Director

ABC may think they scored with yet another salacious tale of an AIDS monster ruining the lives of innocent women, but the true story is more complex; when it comes to public education and responsible, honest reporting, they utterly failed to make the grade.

by Catherine Hanssens
CHLP Executive Director

Imagine where HIV-positive people serving time for spitting or consenual sex might be if the advocacy and funding invested in changing state HIV  laws to eliminate informed consent had instead focused on state laws that make criminals of people with HIV.

by Catherine Hanssens
CHLP Executive Director

More than a dozen town hall meetings are scheduled all across the country to "engage the public in meaningful ways," as the White House website puts it, in the development of a long-overdue national strategy to address the U.S. domestic HIV epidemic. But is this step enough? Is this opportunity for input sufficiently meaningful?

by Cynthia Fernandez
CHLP Intern

While individuals convicted of prostitution in Tennessee who do not have HIV face misdemeanor charges that usually amount to a fine and probation, those living with HIV face a felony charge and an additional three to fifteen years due to their health status.

by Margo Kaplan
CHLP Supervising Human Rights Attorney

Last month, a U.S. district court judge chose to sentence an HIV-positive pregnant woman to more than double the recommended time for the sole stated purpose of keeping her in prison until she delivered. Being pregnant and having HIV are not crimes, and using imprisonment to coerce pregnant women to make the medical care choices the state thinks is best is an outrageous abuse of the system. 

by Regan Hofmann
Editor-in-Chief, POZ and poz.com

The Daily Beast
www.thedailybeast.com
(c) 2009 RTST, Inc.

A Canadian court has handed down the world’s first murder conviction for knowingly exposing and infecting someone with the AIDS virus. But as an HIV-positive woman, I know that the man who infected me only deserves half the blame.

by Alison Mehlman
CHLP Director of Planning & Policy Research

It appears as if some physicians in New York State feel that their time and convenience should be a primary determinant of HIV testing policy. But what has happened to patient-centered care? Should the perceived inconvenience of a health care provider trump the enforcement of necessary patient protections?

by Catherine Hanssens
CHLP Executive Director

A flurry of outraged discussion has continued in the wake of the voiced objections of Colorado State Senator Dave Schultheis to a bill, SB-179, which would, among other things, require HIV testing of all pregnant women who don’t explicitly object to the testing.

by Catherine Hanssens
CHLP Executive Director

Given what we know about the near-zero risk of HIV transmission from health care worker to patient, even during so-called exposure-prone procedures, it’s past time that the nation’s public health authority acknowledges that their own guidelines are too restrictive.

by Bill Piper
Director, National Affairs
Drug Policy Alliance

According to news reports, President-elect Obama is considering nominating Republican Congressman Jim Ramstad (R-MN) to be the next director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) or "drug czar." That would be a mistake.