Opponents of mandatory testing have argued that mandatory testing is a bad public health policy that harms women and children by violating women's privacy rights, autonomy and freedom of choice. The proponents of mandatory testing have been able to thwart criticisms of this policy difficult by focusing on discourses on relative rights of women and fetuses. They argue that civil libertarians and feminists who seek to preserve women's rights have failed to consider the public health consequences of allowing women to seek testing voluntarily. For proponents, the health of an infant and the general public is paramount, and infants as "innocents" have rights that supercede the privacy rights of women.

This Note argues that mandatory testing harms both women and children, principally because coercive medical policies drive women from health care, and that mandatory testing is not clearly justified in view of the recent medical advances in AIDS treatments. By exposing the erroneous assumption that fetal health is protected by mandatory testing and by uncovering the damaging effects of coercive testing, opponents of mandatory testing can more effectively argue against this destructive policy.

In the debates to come, the opponents of mandatory testing should move the focus of the debate away from the relative rights of women, fetuses and newborns, and expose the power, coercion and racism hiding behind the "save the babies" rhetoric.