Iowa Legislature rewrites 'draconian' HIV transmission bill

A bill rewriting the law criminalizing the transmission of the virus HIV will go to Gov. Terry Branstad after winning House passage early Thursday morning.

Senate File 2297 unanimously passed the Iowa House after going virtually unmentioned in the Legislature for more than a month.

The bill expands state laws against transmitting HIV to include other contagious and infectious diseases including hepatitis, tuberculosis and menningicocal disease and requires the transmission to be known for criminal charges to be filed. It's intended to revise a "badly outdated and draconian" law regarding the transmission of HIV, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, and others have said.

Transmitting one of the diseases could be one of three classes of crimes depending on whether the diseased person passed the infection to another person intentionally or with reckless disregard or without informing the person of their status.

The measure has been supported by a wide range of social justice and gay rights groups, who say the current law is outdated and rooted in the HIV hysteria of the 1980s and '90s.