Couples seeking a marriage license in Oklahoma may be barred from doing so if they are found to have STDs, under a new provision in Senate Bill 733. Currently, this type of information is private under specific HIPAA laws, but the proposed law would make this information public.
Opponents say the provision is an explicit violation of privacy, according to Oklahoma News 9:
“’This new law would require you to file with the court clerk the results of this test which the whole world could see,’ Attorney David Slane said. ‘It seems to me that would violate people’s real privacy rights.’
It stated the State Board of Health shall require a blood test for the discovery of syphilis and other communicable diseases prior to a marriage license being issued.
‘This law says you shall file meaning that that contemplates that they’re actually going to take a copy and file it there, and it’s going to be a record in the court clerk’s office,’ Slane said.”
Proponents of the bill, like Oklahoma Senator Kyle Loveless, argue that the provision will be beneficial in helping those who have STDs to find out for themselves:
“’The way that the bill is written, that is correct,’ Senator Kyle Loveless said. ‘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.’”
Oklahoma has recently come under fire for passing other controversial marriage laws, such as the “Preservation of Sovereignty and Marriage Act.”
The bill was drafted in an effort to combat a federal judge’s ruling that Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional. It would punish Oklahoma officials attempting to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Should couples seeking to be married be forbidden from obtaining a license, or is this an abuse of state power? If anything, the proposed law is controversial.
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