Prenatal HIV Testing

After a long and arduous process, beginning even before the bill’s introduction, a compromise bill addressing procedures for HIV testing of pregnant women was passed into law. The original bill, vehemently opposed by the ACLU, eliminated any pre-test HIV counseling for pregnant women while simultaneously weakening informed consent requirements for the testing. In the end, the Affiliate was successful in getting counseling requirements restored, mandating documentation of a patient’s consent for the testing to be included in the medical record, and barring discrimination by doctors against women who opt out of testing.