Is not that something which is done only in African countries, so couples can be sure their children won't suffer from adnormalities on their red cells?
This is something which is pretty much unheard of in the American continent, I have never had my blood examined when I have a girlfriend and I have never even suggested any of my girlfriends to get tested to know their genotypes...
It must be kind of weird to live in a society where people pays such amount of attention to genetics of other people. Again, it is something which is not common here.
The main issue with genotype in most cases is mere ignorance, a lot of people do not understand how important it is for an individual to know his or her genotype before they start having children, if there is much awareness in the society concerning this very topic then we wouldn't be having children suffering with sickle cell as a result of the mistake of their parents because awareness is key to eliminating the disease.
Sickle blood cells is a genetical disorder which is endemic of African countries, countries which had been historically associated with malaria. Since people with sickle blood cells are naturally more resistant to malaria than people with normal blood cells.
Here in America there is very little need to perform genetic tests in order to rule out genotypes which could result into children having sickle blood cells, because this region does not endemically suffers from malaria. It would only be necessary if two African American people wanted to have children and both were from counties where malaria is common.
I have never met anyone here in my country who has taken those tests together with their partner.