Justice Seeks HIV Disability Ruling

The Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to rule that people who are infected with HIV virus be protected by the Americans With Disabilities Act, particularly because the virus interferes with reproduction and pregnancy. The government position came in a brief filed on the side of a Maine woman whose dentist denied her routine treatment in his office because she had the virus that causes AIDS. After dentist Randon Bragdon refused to fill a cavity for Sidney Abbott, she sued under the act, which protects people with disabilities from discrimination. Abbott argued that she was disabled because she was substantially limited in the “major life activity” of reproduction because an HIV-positive pregnant woman risks giving the virus to her child.