New Jersey Leading the Fight Against HIV Transmissions to Babies

HIV testing will be a regular procedure for prenatal care for babies in New Jersey. This would put the state in the front of the global fight against HIV transmission from the mother to child. The Acting Gov. Richard J. Cordey signed the legislature on December 26th on location at the University Hospital located in Newark, New Jersey. The measure will officially take place in six months. The acting governor was in place for Governor Jon Corine who is currently out of office for the holiday break.

The screening of HIV transmission for children will set examples for another states say advocates of this law. Heidi Simmons, who resides in Camden, New Jersey, supports the screening. "I have known too many mothers who have passed on HIV to their children. It is horrible and now that it will be required is a step in the right direction. I have seen kids die at age sixteen from AIDS because they contracted it from their mother. Now this cannot happen." However, the law will allow mothers to opt out of the testing. Simmons says she does not think people will decline testing. "I think nobody would be stupid enough to not have the test. If they do, then they don't deserve to have a child."

New Jersey in the past month has made historic decisions in this past month. First abolishing the death penalty in more than forty years and now becoming the first state in the nation to have HIV testing for pregnant women and newborns. Other states such as Arkansas and Michigan, have similar laws that mandate health care providers to test the mother for HIV. Further, Connecticut and New York test all new borns for HIV, but New Jersey would be the first in the nation to test for both. According to the Kaiser Foundation, New Jersey has over seventeen thousand AIDS cases. They say that women make up 32% of the cases, which is currently the third highest in the nation.