Laws

Select the year on the left to view past Bill efforts to modernize Indiana’s HIV criminal laws, some of which passed and were signed into law.

HB1198 Bill Text & Read the FAQ and
Position Statements
Click here for the Indiana Red Cross
Click here for Indiana Disability Rights
Click here for the Indiana State Medical Association
Watch here: Indiana Interim Study Committee on HIV Criminal Law Reform Recommends Modernization.

HB1032-2022 removes 1980s/90s era sentencing enhancements and criminal offenses related to HIV that were based on stigma and misinformation about people who are HIV positive.
**HB1032 Advocacy Fact Sheet

HB1158 modernizes sections of the Public Health Code linked to Indiana’s outdated HIV criminal laws.

HEA1340-2021 eliminating stigmatizing language in the criminal code based on HIV status.

HEA1182-2020 eliminated stigmatizing and outdated HIV science language in the public health code and made HIV-related science updates.

HB1325-2019 Aimed to eliminate stigmatizing language, make HIV-related science updates, repeal and modernize two outdated HIV criminal codes (Did not pass

IC= Indiana Code; IC-16 refers to Health Code IC-35 refers to Criminal Code

Guiding Principles for Modernizing Indiana’s HIV Criminal Laws

A model law must include:

  • Criminal intent to transmit & conduct likely to transmit HIV.
  • Punishment proportionate to the actual harm.
  • Must reflect modern HIV science
  • Remove stigmatizing language in the law.

Indiana Laws

Click here for full code

  • IC 16-41-7-1  Duty to inform persons at risk;
  • IC 16-41-7-2: Reporting of persons posing serious and present risk or at risk
  • IC 16-41-7-3: Notification by physician
  • IC 16-41-7-4: Investigation of persons with serious communicable disease; notification of persons at risk
  • IC 16-41-7-5: Violations

IC 16-41-7-1 Duty to inform persons at risk:

Criminalizes nondisclosure of HIV and HBV status in cases where a person knows their disease status and engages in sexual or needle sharing activity that has been shown to “epidemiologically transmit a serious communicable disease [specifically HIV, HBV ] as determined by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention”.

This means that a person who:
1. Knows that he/she is HIV or HBV positive,
2. Has a “duty to inform” [disclose to] past, present and potential sexual (or needle-sharing) partners of his/her HIV or HBV status, if they engage in a  sexual or needle sharing act that can transmit HIV.

Read the Law

IC 16-41-7-2: Reporting of persons posing serious and present risk or at risk;
IC 16-41-7-3: Notification by physician;
IC 16-41-7-4: Investigation of persons with a communicable disease; notification of persons at risk

Together, these codes:
1. Require physicians who provide HIV care to “inform the patient” of the duty to inform;
2. Waives a patient’s physician-patient privilege when a physician notifies a health officer or a “person at risk” about a person’s HIV status or non¬compliant behavior with “duty to inform”.
3. Physicians and non-physicians have a right to report a patient’s HIV-positive status to a health officer if they have reasonable cause to believe the patient  (a) poses a serious and present risk to the health of others; or (b) has engaged  in  non-compliant behavior with a health directive; or (c) “is suspected of being a person at risk”.
4. Outlines conditions under which a physician may also personally inform a patient’s sexual or needle-sharing partner, or a person legally responsible for the patient, of a patient’s HIV status and need for them to seek counseling, testing and health care.
5. Physicians and non-physicians  who reports in good faith to a health  officer, and the case of Physicians,  the patient’s sexual or needle-sharing partner, an  individual’s  HIV  status  are immune  from liability  in  civil, administrative, disciplinary, and criminal actions and false reports subject to punishment.

Read the Law

IC 16-41-7-5: Violations 

A person who recklessly violates or fails to comply with IC 16-41-7 (2-4) commits a Class B misdemeanor.

Read the Law

Click here for full code
Knowing or intentional violation or failure to comply with 16-41-7-1 (Duty to Inform) is a Level 6 Felony  (punishable by up to 3 yrs. in prison and a $10,000 fine); every day constitutes a new violation.

Click here for full code

Click here for full code
Together these three codes (IC 16, 41, 17; IC-41-14-17; and IC 35-45-21-1) make it a felony for HIV positive persons to donate or sell their semen, blood, or plasma. The law does not apply to people who donate semen or blood for research purposes or notify the blood center that the blood or blood component must be discarded and not used for any purpose.

  1. It is a Level 5 felony (up to six years imprisonment and up to a $10,000 fine), for a person to recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally donate, sell, or transfer blood or semen for artificial insemination that contains HIV.
  2. If the act results in HIV transmission, however, the level of the offense is not entirely clear. Under IC 35-45-21-1, it is a Level 3 felony (up to twenty years imprisonment and up to a $10,000 fine). Yet under IC 16-41-14-17, it is a Level 4 felony (up to twelve years imprisonment and up to a $10,000 fine). It appears that during the major revision of Indiana’s criminal code, which added 35-45-21-1 as a new statute, replacing 35-42-1-7, effective July 1, 2014 – an oversight occurred which resulted in this contradiction.

Click here for full code
Makes it a felony for HIV positive persons to expose others to any bodily fluid, including those not known to transmit HIV. Specifically, a person who knowingly or intentionally:

  1. In a rude, insolent, or angry manner places any bodily fluid or waste on another person; commits battery, a class B misdemeanor [Class A misdemeanor if bodily injury occurs]; if serious bodily injury occurs, it is a level 5 felony.
  2. This code includes sentence enhancement for HIV, Hepatitis [unspecified] and TB and makes it a level 6 felony if the person knew or recklessly failed to know that the bodily fluid or waste placed on another person was infected with hepatitis, TB, or HIV.
  3. And further sentence enhancement for just HIV – becomes a level 5 felony if the person placed the bodily fluid or waste on a public safety official.

Click here for full code
This code also makes it a felony for HIV positive persons to expose others to, or with the intent for others to ingest, any bodily fluid, including those not known to transmit HIV. Specifically, a person who recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally:

  1. Places human body fluid or fecal waste in a location with the intent that another person will involuntarily touch, or ingest, the bodily fluid or fecal waste commits malicious mischief, a class B misdemeanor [if ingest, then Class A misdemeanor].
  2. Includes sentence enhancement for hepatitis A-G, HIV or TB – Level 6 felony if the person knew or recklessly failed to know that the body fluid or fecal waste was infected with the said mentioned viruses/TB
  3. It is a Level 5 felony if it results in transmission of hepatitis A-G or TB. But allows for
    further sentence enhancement for HIV – Level 4 felony if it results in transmission of HIV.

Change the Law – End the Stigma