No. HB 1223
Filed under Healthcare.
Sexually Transmissible Diseases; Citing act as “HIV Prevention Justice Act”; reduces degree of criminal penalty for certain persons who are infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) & who donate blood, plasma, organs, skin, or other human tissue for use in another person; revises prohibitions relating to intentional transmission of certain diseases through sexual conduct; provides that person’s failure to comply with behavioral recommendations does not de facto establish intent to transmit a disease; revises requirements for HIV testing in cases involving criminal transmission of HIV.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDKnowingly having sex without disclosing an STD is no longer automatically criminal. Prosecutors must now prove intent to transmit the disease, a real risk of transmission, and that the other person did not know.
Following a doctor's treatment plan or offering safer-sex precautions — even if the partner refuses them — now counts as proof a person did not intend to transmit the disease.
The separate felony for knowingly exposing a partner to HIV is gone, along with its escalation to a first-degree felony on repeat offenses. HIV now carries the same first-degree-misdemeanor penalty as other listed diseases.
Donating blood or tissue while knowingly HIV-positive drops from a felony to a misdemeanor too, and is no longer a crime at all when a licensed physician deems the donation medically appropriate.
AIKnowingly donating blood, plasma, organs, skin, or other tissue while HIV-positive drops from a third-degree felony to a first-degree misdemeanor, and loses eligibility for habitual-offender sentencing enhancement.
AIA donation of blood, plasma, organs, skin, or tissue by a person who knows they are HIV-positive is no longer a crime at all when a licensed physician deems the donation medically appropriate.
AIHIV is added to the same list of diseases as chancroid and gonorrhea under one unlawful-acts provision, while the separate felony that used to apply only to HIV exposure through sex, including its first-degree-felony repeat-offense enhancement, is deleted entirely.
AIThe crime now requires proof the person acted with intent to transmit the disease and engaged in conduct posing a substantial risk of transmission, replacing a standard based only on having sex without disclosure.
AIA person who in good faith follows a prescribed treatment regimen or a provider's risk-reduction recommendations is treated as not having the intent required to be guilty, and failing to comply is not enough by itself to prove that intent.
AIA person who tests positive after one qualifying offense and then commits a second one used to commit a third-degree felony; that offense is now a first-degree misdemeanor, with no felony-enhancement citation remaining.
AICourt-ordered HIV and hepatitis testing of a convicted offender applies only when the underlying offense involved transmission of body fluids other than saliva, narrowing which cases qualify.
AIThe standalone administrative penalty for violating the department's rules on sexually transmissible diseases, and the department's authority to enforce that specific penalty, are both repealed without replacement.