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Editorial From the Des Moines Register: "Lawmakers Need to Revisit HIV Criminal Law"

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September 19, 2013
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Lambda Legal Client Nick Rhoades

From the Des Moines Register:

Iowa lawmakers are eager to pass laws criminalizing just about any activity. Yet they refuse to acknowledge when one of those laws turns out to be a mistake.

Therefore, it would have done them good to have attended a hearing in the Iowa Court of Appeals last week. They could have seen how a bad law they passed in 1998 has wasted the time of public officials, embarrassed the state of Iowa and ruined the lives of innocent people. It might prompt them to repeal a law criminalizing HIV-positive Iowans who have done nothing wrong.

Nick Rhoades is one of those Iowans. He is challenging the application of Iowa’s law that makes it a felony to expose someone to HIV, the virus that can cause AIDS.

Read the full editorial here.

Learn more about Lambda Legal's case, Rhoades v. Iowa.