The Nation - News from Sept. 12, 1989

Gov. James R. Thompson signed legislation repealing Illinois’ controversial premarital AIDS-testing requirement, the only law of its kind in the nation. The repeal measure, approved in June by the General Assembly. is effective immediately. It also eliminates a long-standing requirement that prospective spouses be tested for syphilis. The cost of an AIDS test--ranging from $20 to $150 per person--was blamed for a sharp drop in the number of marriage licenses issued in Illinois, from nearly 100,000 in 1987 to fewer than 80,000 last year.