CATT.Com - New law may threaten marriage mecca

New law may threaten marriage mecca

Contributed By: The Catoosa County News
Friday, July 11 2003 @ 04:17 PM EDT

Ringgold has long been known as a marriage mecca, but a new Georgia law has already had an impact on the city’s marriage industry.

On July 1, the requirement for blood testing before marriage was eliminated.

After 23 years in business and thousands of blood tests, Andco Labs, located at 29 Maple St. in Ringgold, has closed the doors for good. Owner Barbara Andrews said she is not aware of another lab in the Catoosa County area that specifically dealt with blood testing for marriage. She said part of the draw for couples to come to Ringgold is the speedy blood test and marriages.

“Coming to Ringgold to get married has been a tradition for a lot of people,” she said. “Many came here because it was a quick test, no hassle, and a very minimum charge. This is like the end of an era in Ringgold.”

The Chapel of the Bells, the lab’s onsite chapel, will remain open, but Andrews said the new law could hurt her wedding business as well. She said Andco performed 2,500 blood tests last year and the chapel hosted 1,400 weddings.

Herman Kapheer, minister at the chapel, said he has seen couples go through the whole process, from blood test, to marriage license to wedded bliss in one hour. He said he has married couples from England, France, Africa and all points in between. Many of the foreign couples come to Atlanta for business and find their way to Ringgold to tie the knot, Kapheer said.

“We’re still going to have a chapel, but I’m not sure how it’s going to go,” he said. “I’ll just take it one day at a time.”

Blood testing still needed?
Andrews, who is trained in medical technology, said there is a significant problem with the new law because it also ends testing for rubella in women and testing for sickle-cell anemia in African-Americans. She said a child born to a mother with rubella has a 40 percent chance of having a birth defect.

“I’m not sure all the legislators who voted for it really knew what they were voting for,” she said.

Rep. Ron Forster, R-Ringgold, said when the bill was introduced to the Georgia General Assembly, it was presented as only eliminating syphilis testing. He said Senate Bill 190 actually eliminated the entire section of Georgia law that dealt with blood testing and includes testing for rubella, also known as German measles, and sickle-cell anemia. Forster said the law may have to be amended next legislative session to resume testing for those diseases.

“It wasn’t a controversial bill, but nobody realized until later that little line that said remove this section,” he said.

Sen. Don Thomas, R-Dalton, who sponsored the bill, said the law was changed at the request of the Georgia Department of Human Services, Division of Public Health.

Thomas, a family practice physician for 43 years, said testing for syphilis before marriage is outdated. He said testing began in the 1930s, before the advent of penicillin and other antibiotics. He said in his experience with syphilis testing, a blood test gives many false positives, and that just leads to more testing.

However, he said the rubella issue is cause to take a second look at the law.

“It is worthwhile to test for rubella,” Thomas said. “If a woman gets rubella during pregnancy, the baby can experience congenital abnormalities. GDHR didn’t bring the issue of the removal of the other tests out to me. What I talked with them about was the elimination of the test for syphilis.”

Debra Elovich, GDHR assistant commissioner for policy and government services, said eliminating bloodtesting was both a cost saving matter and an issue of sufficient testing already in place. She said the National Institute of Medicine recommended a few years ago that states stop blood testing for marriages. Elovich said Georgia was one of only five states still performing tests in the U.S.

She said the public is still well protected.

“People getting married are not your high risk syphilis population, so we weren’t catching people who were most at risk,” she said. “All three tests prevented prenatal diseases or birth defects. There are more thorough regiments for these diseases in place.”

Elovich said the new law will save $300,000 for the state’s public health labs.

Marriage mecca in jeopardy?
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, over the years Catoosa County has consistently ranked among the top two counties in marriages performed in Georgia, alternating with Charlton County. The county recorded 2,250 marriages last year, down from 2,740 in 1997, but doubling the 1,060 marriages recorded in 2000. According to court records, the probate court issues an average of nine marriage licenses per day and 75 percent of marriages in Ringgold involve couples from out of town.

Many famous people bolstered the town’s reputation by exchanging vows there. Dolly Parton wed Carl Dean at the First Baptist Church of Ringgold, May 1966. Don Everly of the Everly brothers also tied the knot here, and country music legend George Jones exchanged vows with Tammy Wynette at the courthouse in Feb. 1969.

Jones said they chose Ringgold because of its ability to provide the rapid transformation from bachelor to married man.

“We got married there because that was where you would go to get married in a day,” Jones said. “You didn’t have to wait for a license. Everyone went there if they wanted to get married fast.”

Catoosa County Probate Judge Greg Grayson said the new law, and the subsequent closing of Andco Labs, may cause people, especially in south Georgia, not to choose Ringgold’s speedy process like they have in the past. Grayson said convenience and word of mouth are the reasons couples flock to Ringgold.

Grayson said once word about the new law gets out, many people will stay home to get married. He said the new law hurts his plan to promote the business of marriage.

“I have put a lot of time and effort into getting a package together where people can get married here and spend their honeymoon in a place like Gatlinburg, Tenn.,” he said. “The new law diminishes those efforts. I think we’ll still enjoy some momentum because people will come here because their parents or friends got married here.”

Tammy Cole, vice-president of the Catoosa County Chamber of Commerce, said marriage is a big industry in Ringgold. Not only do couples get married here, they often spend money eating, shopping or visiting the town before traveling back to their hometown to start their new life together.

Helen Boyd, owner of Ringgold Wedding Chapel, has been in the marriage business for 30 years and owner of the chapel for 16.

She said the new law could actually boost business, with neighboring Chattanooga charging $97.50 for a marriage license or $37.50 if couples attend pre-marriage ounseling.

She said a marriage license here is only $26.

“People have been coming to Ringgold to get married since World War II, and I don’t think this is going to stop them,” she said. “There’s a possibility this might actually increase business. Our marriages have been down since 9-11. You would think 9-11 would make people want to be together.”

Staff writer Randall Franks contributed to this story.

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