10-27-2022
We are disappointed to let you know that PA HB 103 has passed the Pennsylvania state legislature with broad, bipartisan support. HB 103 is now in the Governor’s hands. Governor Tom Wolf has 10 days to sign HB 103 into law.
Help us stop HB 103! Urge Governor Wolf (PA) to veto HB 103 by calling his office at 717-787-2500 and leaving a message urging him to VETO HB 103. The ACLU-PA created a quick and easy way for you to do that. Just click HERE, call and read the script.
You can also sign on to our opposition letter here.
HB 103 creates two new, unnecessary, and broadly applicable felony offenses and subjects people with a communicable disease, such as HIV, to harsher penalties under law. Increasing penalties because someone has a communicable disease is stigmatizing, discriminatory, and harms public health efforts.
As passed, HB 103 would create two new felonies:
- A new third-degree felony offense for something as small as “expelling” saliva on a police officer, punishable by up to seven years in prison and up to $15,000 in fines; and
- A new second-degree felony offense if the person knew or “should have known” they had a reportable, communicable disease if their actions could have transmitted a communicable disease—punishable by up to TEN YEARS in prison and up to $25,000 in fines.
Subjecting people to harsher penalties because of a health condition violates the human rights and dignity of people with communicable diseases and harms our state’s public health efforts. We are opposed to HB 103 because of this regressive and harmful approach to public health. We are also opposed to the bill as a whole.
Police already have special protections that punish people more when officers are assaulted. If passed, this bill would further expand police power to arrest those who come into contact with law enforcement, disproportionately harming Black and brown people, queer and trans people, and low-income communities — communities already subject to over-policing, police brutality, and police surveillance. Creating yet another new crime against police is duplicative and will invite “charge stacking” (an unfair practice in which police or prosecutors charge a defendant with multiple crimes for the same behavior so the penalties “stack” on top of each other).
Join the PA HIV Justice Alliance, Positive Women’s Network-USA, the Sero Project, the ACLU-PA, and many other organizations urging Governor Wolf to veto HB 103. [See our sign-on list as of 10-27-22 morning here]
Take action here!
This is our short window to block this harmful bill, so act quickly: CALL his office and SIGN ON to the letter today!
