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OCR Page 1 of 78TESTIMONY
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
HEALTH SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE
by
W. Shepherd Smith
President
Americans for a Sound AIDS/HIV Policy
May 11, 1995
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of this Committee for
having a hearing which we believe will result in saving the lives
of many young Americans.
I would like to preface my remarks by saying that I hope the
attention given this subject will be serious and adequate, but
will not take away from the reauthorization of the Ryan White
Care Act that has already been before this Committee. If this
means a separate bill for prenatal or infant testing, then we
hope that is considered rather than any delay in Ryan White
reauthorization. Secondly, Congressman Ackerman should be
congratulated for bringing attention to this issue, as well as
the Committee Chairman for agreeing to hearings on this critical
issue so early in the 104th Congress.
When we formed in 1987, we quickly saw that HIV would affect
the traditional family as well as the communities that it had
heavily impacted by that point in time. In 1988 we began a
Children's Assistance Fund to help families affected by HIV/AIDS,
which has grown exponentially. This past year we helped over
8,400 children and families in one way or another, and expect
this number to grow significantly higher in 1995. Our experience
with infected infants and young people is regrettably very
extensive.
Since its inception we have spoken out against the policy of
blinded infant testing, arguing that many of the infections
caused by this policy were totally unnecessary and completely
avoidable. Women who were unaware of their HIV status who
carried newborn uninfected infants home could subsequently
breastfeed their child and transmit HIV. Had mothers known of
their status, not only could many of these infections been
avoided in the past, but these same women could have received
medical care for themselves and reduced the risk of transmission
of the virus to their future sexual partner or partners.
Regrettably we have an epidemic of ignorance that has been
perpetuated by such policies which center nearly exclusively on
the right of privacy of the infected individual at the exclusion
and expense of the rights of those who are uninfected. It is
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