by the American Civil Liberties Union

About the author: The American Civil Liberties Union is a national organization that works to defend civil rights and liberties guaranteed by law and the U.S. Constitution.

The American Civil Liberties Union opposes mandatory, non-consensual HIV testing of pregnant women and newborns. We all have the right, protected by the Constitution, to be free of unnecessary government control. To take any compulsory medical action—such as forced HIV testing—the government must prove that there is no less intrusive means of achieving its goal of promoting public health. In the case of pregnant women and newborns, the facts do not justify mandatory HIV testing but rather show that counseling and voluntary testing is a less intrusive way of...