Fall 2025

The Health Not Prisons Collective is an intersectional national initiative launched in 2020 by Counter Narrative Project (CNP), Positive Women’s Network – USA (PWN), Sero Project, Transgender Law Center (TLC), and the U.S. Caucus of People Living with HIV (the HIV Caucus) — longtime collaborators led by, and accountable to, communities most affected by HIV criminalization in the United States.

The Health Not Prisons Dispatch is a quarterly bulletin highlighting recent developments relevant to criminalization and policing of people living with HIV in the United States, along with upcoming events, relevant resources, and opportunities to get involved. For more information, email Elena Ferguson at hnp(at)pwn-usa.org.

Collective Updates

In the midst of these uncertain times, HNP came together as Collective in August for  HNP our 2nd bi-annual strategy session. The session took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and representatives from each partner organization debriefed the state of HIV criminalization, deepened our relationships, and strategized as a collective for the future of HNP’s work. 

HNP Partner Organization Spotlight

This quarter, we are spotlighting the HNP partners’ big presence at the United States Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA), one of the largest, annual HIV conferences in the country. All together, HNP partners presented on 30 workshops and 10 Institutes, participated in 2 plenary sessions, and 2 direct actions. One direct action was hosted by Housing Works and another hosted by #SaveHIVFunding Campaign. Both actions drew attention to the urgent need for people living with HIV in the US and abroad to have access to healthcare and housing. In addition, ahead of the conference, the US PLHIV Caucus hosted a strategy session for the steering committee members to vision for the future. 

National Updates

On July 4th, Trump signed into law one of cruelest pieces of federal legislation we’ve seen in years: the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act or HR 1.  We call it the Big Ugly Murder Bill because there is nothing beautiful about the kind of state-sanctioned violence that will occur in the wake of its passage. The bill creates the largest Medicaid and SNAP cuts in history  and will funnel billions of dollars into Trump’s immigration detention and disappearance machine. To learn more about the bill, check out Families USA’s factsheet. 

In the wake of the passage of the Big Ugly Murder Bill, the federal landscape continues to be bleak. The House and Senate failed to reach agreement on a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government funded, resulting in the longest  government shutdown in US history. The Big Ugly Murder Bill allows the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credit to expire, which would cause 24 million people’s insurance premiums to skyrocket by 93%, on average. Senate Democrats are fighting to avoid that harm by making the premium tax credits permanent and restoring some of the other healthcare cuts in the Big Ugly Murder Bill in CR negotiations. With no end in sight, this government shutdown has the potential to be devastating for people living with HIV, particularly those that rely on SNAP.  A 2016 study found that food insecurity is inversely associated with complete viral suppression  which suggests that food insecurity is a potential risk factor for poor health outcomes in people living with HIV.   


The Trump regime successfully deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles and  D.C with deployment orders to  Memphis, Portland, and Chicago being challenged in the courts. These deployments are unnecessary, dangerous, and will not keep the residents of these cities safer. To learn more about how  these deployments and the increased surveillance that come with them will impact people living with HIV,  check out PWN Policy Specialist, Elena Ferguson’s latest piece for the Poz Magazine Blog.

Decriminalization Efforts at the State Level

Many state legislative sessions concluded in the spring. HNP once again tracked relevant legislation related to HIV and sex work decriminalization. In 2025, we tracked 50 pieces of legislation across 24 states. Here a few trends that we saw using our tracker: 

  • HIV Criminalization 

    • Maryland and North Dakota successfully modernized and/or repealed their HIV-criminalization specific laws. 

    • Across the country, there were 8 HIV decriminalization bills introduced and 2 bills that would further criminalize PLHIV.

  • Sex Work Criminalization

    • Across the country 12 bills were introduced that would further criminalize sex workers. Legislation regarding the criminalization of the patrons for "solicitation" of a sex worker was introduced across multiple states, increasing the penalty from a misdemeanor to a felony. 

    • 7 bills that would decriminalize sex work were introduced, but none passed. To learn more about trends in sex work decriminalization legislation, check out this legislative recap from our friends at Decriminalize Sex Work.

  • Mask criminalization

    • Across the country there were 6 bills introduced that created mask bans and 3 bills that protect the right to wear a mask. Legislatures continue to target mask wearers, making enforcement at the discretion of the law enforcement officer, despite the evidence of masks as proven public health tools. 

In June, HNP partners and HNP Advocates attended and presented at the 6th annual HIV is Not a Crime Training Academy in Raleigh, North Carolina hosted by the Sero Project. Here’s a recap of our time together: 

  • Representatives from all 5 HNP partner organizations were in attendance .

  • 7 HNP Advocates attended in-person with 1 advocate presenting.

  • HNP partner organizations and/or HNP Advocates presented on 10 workshops, including our flagship HNP workshop that was designed in collaboration with all partner organizations.

  • HNP partner organizations and/or HNP Advocates facilitated or co-facilitated 4 plenaries  .

  • While in North Carolina, HNP connected with key partners like the Center for HIV Law & Policy and the Williams Institute.

  • We also debuted some new merch items and distributed them to attendees.

The Williams Institute has been instrumental in providing comprehensive research around HIV criminalization across the country. Check out their latest report on the enforcement of HIV criminalization laws regarding sex workers in Pennsylvania. 

HNP Advocates Corner

Welcome to a new section of the HNP Dispatch! For those readers who’ve followed the Collective for a while, you’ll know that we have an HNP Advocates Project. This section of the newsletter highlights just some of the achievements and activities of our current HNP Advocate cohort.  

🔥 This fall, several of our HNP Advocates are sharpening their analysis and building power through #PWNVotes Fall Voter Engagement Campaigns! Advocate for Pennsylvania, Kenya Moussa, is a phonebank lead with the Pennsylvania campaign;  Advocate for Tennessee, Lashanda Salinas, and Advocate for Texas, Roy Lee Soliz, are phonebankers for the Colorado and Texas campaigns respectively. 

Global News

Google refuses to erase search results for a woman living with HIV who was once accused of not disclosing her HIV status to a sexual partner. The charges were later dropped but the media reports are still accessible. This represents one of the many ways that the criminalization of a person living with HIV can rob them of their privacy, anonymity, and ability to thrive in their daily lives. To learn more about this case, you can read more in HIV Justice Network’s reporting here.  

In early September, the South Africa Western Cape High Court heard a case that could end the criminalization of sex work if the challenge is successful. A Human Rights Watch report found that if sex work was decriminalized in South Africa, this would make it easier for sex workers in the country to access health care, including prevention, treatment, care, and mental health support for HIV and other communicable diseases. To learn more about this historic case, check out the latest from Human Rights Watch. 

Resources from the Field

Watch/Listen

  • As we continue to live in uncertain times in which our neighbors are disappearing and our rights are being eroded, the need to build communities of care is ever more present. For more insight into how to build the communities we need to survive, check out the latest episode of the Movement Memos podcast from organizer Kelly Hayes and New Disabled South’s recent webinar. 

Read

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR HNP UPDATES!