Session: 2021-2022
ACLU-PA Position: Opposes
HB 975 would amend Title 18 to add caretakers to the list of people who can be charged with institutional sexual assault, making it a third-degree felony for an employee to have any kind of sexual contact, including consensual sex, with a person who receives care, services, or treatment in or from a facility.
Nearly all crimes for sexual offenses make it an offense if the victim is incapable of consent due to a mental disability. For example, under the offense of rape (18 § 3121), a person can be charged with either a first-degree or super felony to have sexual intercourse with a person "who suffers from a mental disability which renders the complainant incapable of consent."
HB 975 is not only unnecessary and duplicative, it recklessly expands the offense of institutional sexual assault and infantilizes the elderly and those with physical disabilities by assuming they are incapable of engaging in consensual sexual activity.
Governor Wolf signed HB 975 into law on July 11, 2022 as Act 61 of 2022.
