Chicago Tribune (CT) - FRIDAY May 20, 1988 Edition: SPORTS FINAL Section: NEWS Page: 1 Word Count: 977
Tim Franklin, Chicago Tribune

The law has been widely criticized by health-care experts who say it is wrongly directed at a group of people with a low risk of contracting acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and it has sent hundreds of couples to bordering states to avoid the test.

After a contentious debate, the House defeated, on a 76-37 vote, a bill that would have repealed the AIDS-test requirement. The repeal bill needed 60 votes to pass.

The House vote seriously dims prospects for abolishing the premarital AIDS testing law during this spring's legislative session, scheduled to end June 30. Another measure to repeal the requirement was buried in a Senate committee earlier this spring.

"I think this is a pretty decisive vote," said Rep. Grace Mary Stern (D., Highland Park), a supporter of the effort to repeal the law. "This is, for better or for worse, a very conservative legislature, and we have to recognize that they are simply not prepared at this point to repeal that legislation."

Rep. Ellis Levin (D., Chicago), the sponsor of the repeal effort, said the House vote shows that many lawmakers still are in a "panic" in dealing with the AIDS epidemic.

Supporters of the law say it will help stem the spread of the deadly disease, as well as prevent the conception of children who could be infected with the disease.

Illinois and Louisiana are the only two states in the nation with a premarital AIDS testing law.

The measure voted down by the House would have repealed mandatory AIDS testing for propsective couples, but it would have given the state public health director the authority to reinstitute the test if it were deemed medically necessary.

Levin said the state's residents are "mad as hell" about the premarital AIDS testing law.

He said the tests, in some instances, have cost couples more than $250, and he contended that the law imposed a "major tax on marriage."

Moreover, the cost of the test, combined with the anxiety that accompanies it, has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of people crossing state lines to get marriage licenses in Kenosha County, Wis. and Lake County, Ind., Levin said.

Through April, 351 marriage licenses had been issued to Illinois residents in Kenosha County, compared with only 12 in the same period last year, according to records there.

Meanwhile, the number of marriage licenses issued in Cook, Lake, McHenry and Du Page Counties has been declining, according to county officials. The number of marriage licenses issued statewide in the first three months of this year declined by 4,939 compared with the same period last year, to 11,791 from 16,730, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

But Rep. Penny Pullen (R., Park Ridge), a sponsor of the premarital testing law and a member of President Reagan's AIDS commission, said it would be "foolish" for the legislature to "assume that this epidemic is static."

A person who is infected with AIDS may not show any visible symptoms for years, Pullen said.

"I implore you, do not take a step backward," Pullen told legislators. "Do not indicate to the other states that AIDS isn't the problem we thought it was a year ago. That would be the most disastrous thing we could do."

Rep. Kathleen Wojcik (R., Schaumburg) also argued against the repeal effort, saying that the nation was increasingly becoming a "pro-disease society."

"I just had a son get married last July," Wojcik said. "I'll tell you something, I wish he was tested for AIDS, only because he has been promiscuous. He is in a lifestyle contrary to what we have known. . . . Hey, face it, we don't live today the way we lived 30 years ago."

But Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D., Chicago), who supported the repeal effort, said screening marriage license applicants for AIDS is inefficient because people getting married generally are at low risk of contracting the disease.

"Gay men are at substantial risk for AIDS, gay men do not get married," Currie said. "Drug abusers are at high risk for AIDS, the marriage rates in the drug-abusing population are low. The babies that are born with AIDS are born to mothers who never took the walk down the aisle."

Five people, out of about 30,000 screened so far, have tested positive for the HIV antibody, indicating they have been exposed to a carrier of AIDS but not that they have contracted the disease, according to state public health statistics.

The House also overwhelmingly approved two other bills that expand AIDS testing.

One would allow health-care workers exposed to a patient's bodily fluids to seek court orders to test those patients for AIDS. The other would permit sexual assault victims to seek court orders testing their assailants for AIDS.

In another AIDS-related issue, the House passed a bill allowing dentists to refuse treatment to patients with AIDS and other infectious diseases. But dentists who refuse treatment would be required to refer those patients to other dentists.

CAPTION: Photos: Tribune photos by Phil Greer. Rep. Penny Pullen (R., Park Ridge) (left) urges Illinois House members not to scrap the state's premarital AIDS-testing law, while Rep. Grace Mary Stern (D., Highland Park) supports the effort to repeal it.

Graphic: Marriages. (color) Comparing January through April marriage licenses.

Total in Illinois 1987 1988

Cook County+ 7,934 5,969

Lake County, Il 1,208 896

McHenry County 345 261

Du Page County 1,485 1,261

Illinois residents

going out of state 1987 1988

Lake County, Ind.+ 27 188

Kenosha County, Wis. 12 351

+January-March only.

Chicago Tribune Graphic;

Source: County clerk offices.

Map: Marriages. (color)

Illinois counties: McHenry, Lake, Cook, Du Page. Chicago Tribune Graphic;

Sources: County clerk offices.

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