One politician from Oklahoma is working hard to enable a law that requires couples get tested for STDs before walking down the aisle.
Sen. Anthony Sykes (R) introduced Senate Bill 733 to the court late last week. The bill wants couples to take a blood test 30 days before they apply for a marriage license. If one or both have syphilis or any other sexually transmitted disease, they won’t be applicable for the marriage license. Sykes, who has no supporters behind the bill, is also having a huge problem passing it. Number one, medical records are meant to be private, and number two, the bill was already shot down over a decade ago. According to the Huffington Post:
Oklahoma used to require a premarital blood test for syphilis but eliminated it in 2004 — for good reason. At that time, NewsOK.com reported, the Oklahoma State Department of Health said that some 300,000 blood tests in the past five years had turned up just five new cases of syphilis.
Sen. Kyle Loveless (R) says he believes in the proposal, but is aware it needs some updates.
“We have to look at that as a society whether we want people who have communicable diseases, they need to know if they have it, and I think this is a mechanism to provide them to do that,” Sen. Kyle Loveless (R), told NEWS 9.
The age of marriages and people with sexually transmitted diseases are also ways apart. Think Progress points out the average age of men and women to jump the broom has risen to 29 and 27, while the ages of new cases of STDs are 24 and 15.
Sykes might believe he’s doing marriage a solid, but it looks like it’s just another time-consuming step for couples to get hitched. So far, the bill has been referred to Oklahoma’s Judiciary Committee for an ongoing review.
SOURCE: Huffington Post | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
