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According to the legal resource Free Advice, blood tests were intended to determine if one or both of the marrying couple had a disease that may be passed on to their children. As this excellent Catoosa County News article explains, many of the state blood test laws came about during the 1930s, before penicillin and antibiotics. At the time, syphilis was considered a significant public health hazard. While this legal concept may seem somewhat outdated today, the U.S. Marriage
Laws currently lists eight states (including your home state of Georgia) that require blood tests. In those states, the state clerk cannot issue a marriage license until the blood test results have been presented. So a "blood test" is a way to check for sexually transmitted diseases, most often syphilis. However, the tests can also be used to check for rubella and sickle-cell anemia. The Mississippi State Department of Health openly acknowledges this, while also stating that they do not test for HIV or any other STDs unless the patient chooses.
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