Inset: Gynecologist Stephanie Eder gives an injection into the upper arm of a teenager during the HPV vaccination in a gynecologist’s practice. Stefan Puchner/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images/Background: The state Capitol in Oklahoma City, Monday, July 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
A law that could make thousands of people felons in the state of Oklahoma for “recklessly” spreading increasingly common sexually transmitted infections or diseases has sailed through the state’s House, 78-14, and is now poised for a vote in its Senate.
Known as House Bill 3098, its sponsors, Republican Oklahoma Sen. Jessica Garvin and Republican state House Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, argue the law is meant to stop the spread of STIs.
Currently, the state had already criminalized the intentional spreading of certain STIs or sexually transmitted diseases but the Garvin-Hasenbeck bill would add a new crop of ailments to the mix, including chlamydia, bacterial vaginosis, herpes, the human papillomavirus, or HPV, hepatitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, and trichomoniasis among others.
State bans on the intentional spreading of gonorrhea, syphilis and smallpox have been in effect since 1997 and their intentional spread is considered punishable by up to five years in prison.
But opponents say the language of the latest bill with its new ailments is far too ill-defined to achieve the goal of stopping the rapid spread of disease.
The legislation does not define the word “reckless” or how that would be determined. Further, ailments like bacterial vaginosis are not necessarily always sexually transmitted, for example, but fall under a category of a “vaginal condition” as well, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
HPV is hugely common in the United States with 13 million infected each year, with many of the infected being teenagers. It is also a particular issue in Oklahoma: The state’s Department of Health posted a notice on Facebook this March stating that 85% percent of residents would get the infection in their lifetime.
Notably, HPV is estimated to cause nearly 36,500 cases of cancer in Oklahoman men and women annually, including cancer in the cervix, throat, anus, penis and vagina or vulva, according to the Oklahoma Department of Health.
If the legislation is passed by the state’s Senate it would become effective Nov. 1.
The state legislature’s online bill tracker shows that it was voted out of the Oklahoma House and then reported to the Oklahoma Senate on April 4. It is unclear exactly when it will go to the floor for a full vote but with joint sponsorship in both political bodies already, its passage has significant potential. Garvin and Hasenbeck did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
NPR’s affiliate KOSU reported Wednesday that a 2022 STI Surveillance Report ranked Oklahoma as having the 20th highest rate of chlamydia in all states.
A spokesperson for the Tulsa STI Testing Center, Jeff Burdge also told the outlet that the lack of a definition for the word “reckless” in the bill could open up huge legal liabilities for vulnerable populations. And as to HPV, the virus can only be tested for in women, causing a disproportionate burden.
“I don’t think we need to be putting more women into prison just because they have a virus that is well throughout the community that anyone could have,” Burdge said.
Opponents to House Bill 3098 like Valerie Howard, a fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Internists and a medical director for H.O.P.E. Testing in Oklahoma, say the legislation criminalizing diseases, especially those that do not necessarily involve sexual contact, will not deter their spread but could have the opposite intended effect.
“HB 3098 will not decrease the spread of STIs. It will generate fear and discourage necessary testing. If healthier Oklahomans is the goal, the Legislature must address the spread of STIs through prevention strategies — education and testing — not criminalization,” Howard wrote last month for TulsaWorld.
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