Illinois counties bordering other states showed the sharpest decline, while neighboring counties in other states experienced sharp increases. For example, Wisconsin's Kenosha County issued 1,142 marriage licenses to Illinois residents in 1988, compared to 67 one year earlier. In the state of Wisconsin, the number of Illinois women who were married jumped from 871 in 1987 to 3,563 in 1988. 16 Louisiana had a similar experience. At the same time, the number of marriages in border areas in Texas, Mississippi, and Arkansas increased markedly.
People seeking marriage licenses are a very low-risk population.
The Illinois experience revealed no evidence that the rate of HIV-transmission was reduced or even stabilized during the tenure of the mandatory premarital screening program. Telling people they are HIV-positive when they are not will unnecessarily lead to severe stress and possibly endanger jobs, health insurance, and family relationships. Premarital HIV-testing is a waste of important resources. Beyond the inefficiencies of premarital testing on its own terms, it also diverts valuable time of lab technicians, counselors, testers, administrators, nurses, doctors, and money from those in need of care. For example, in Illinois, so many marriage applicants sought testing at free clinics in Cook County that Cook County Hospital in Chicago had to stop offering the test to engaged couples.