Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 685

524US2

Unit: $U96

[09-15-00 14:39:49] PAGES PGT: OPIN

640

BRAGDON v. ABBOTT

Opinion of the Court

Knowledge Base 1.9–8, and tbl. 2; see also Haverkos &
Battjes, Female-to-Male Transmission of HIV, 268 JAMA
1855, 1856, tbl. (1992) (cumulative results of 16 studies indi-
cated 25% risk of female-to-male transmission).
(Studies re-
port a similar, if not more severe, risk of male-to-female
transmission. See, e. g., Osmond & Padian, AIDS Knowl-
edge Base 1.9–3, tbl. 1, 1.9–6 to 1.9–7.)

Second, an infected woman risks infecting her child during
gestation and childbirth, i. e., perinatal transmission. Peti-
tioner concedes that women infected with HIV face about a
25% risk of transmitting the virus to their children.
107
F. 3d, at 942; 912 F. Supp., at 587, n. 6. Published reports
available in 1994 conﬁrm the accuracy of this statistic. Re-
port of a Consensus Workshop, Maternal Factors Involved in
Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV–1, 5 J. Acquired Im-
mune Deﬁciency Syndromes 1019, 1020 (1992) (collecting 13
studies placing risk between 14% and 40%, with most studies
falling within the 25% to 30% range); Connor et al., Reduc-
tion of Maternal-Infant Transmission of Human Immunode-
ﬁciency Virus Type 1 with Zidovudine Treatment, 331 New
England J. Med. 1173, 1176 (1994) (placing risk at 25.5%); see
also Staprans & Feinberg, Medical Management of AIDS 32
(studies report 13% to 45% risk of infection, with average of
approximately 25%).

Petitioner points to evidence in the record suggesting that
antiretroviral therapy can lower the risk of perinatal trans-
mission to about 8%. App. 53; see also Connor, supra, at
1176 (8.3%); Sperling et al., Maternal Viral Load, Zidovudine
Treatment, and the Risk of Transmission of Human Immuno-
deﬁciency Virus Type 1 from Mother to Infant, 335 New
England J. Med. 1621, 1622 (1996) (7.6%). The United States
questions the relevance of the 8% ﬁgure, pointing to reg-
ulatory language requiring the substantiality of a limi-
tation to be assessed without regard to available mitigating
measures. Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 18,
n. 10 (citing 28 CFR pt. 36, App. B, p. 611 (1997); 29 CFR pt.