California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Friday led a coalition of 22 states in support of the Biden administration's proposed new policy that would make it easier for LGBTQ people to donate blood and plasma.
Current blood donation policy recommends prohibiting gay and bisexual men from donating blood within three months of their most recent sexual contact, regardless of whether they engaged in high-risk behavior.
In January of this year, the US Department of Health and Human Services ‒HHS‒ and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ‒FDA‒ presented proposed new guidance that would abandon the current discriminatory approach and instead use a risk-based analysis for all donors, regardless of gender and sexual orientation.
In a comment letter issued yesterday afternoon, Attorney General Bonta supports the new policy.
"Everyone deserves respect and no one should have to endure discrimination, especially when trying to save the lives of others," Bonta said.
“Our nation’s antiquated approach to blood donation is a vestige of a shameful and intolerant past. It’s time to discard it and move to a risk-based, science-based screening approach for all blood donors. Not only will it protect LGBTQ people from the stigma of being unfairly singled out, but it will also help countless more patients by giving the nation’s blood supply a huge boost,” she added.
According to the American Red Cross, every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood.
Blood transfusions and blood products are needed for major surgeries, to treat diseases such as sickle cell anemia and some types of cancer, and to treat victims injured by accidents, violence, or natural disasters.
In recent years, as the COVID-19 crisis reduced the number of community events and blood drives, blood donations dropped significantly. In January 2022, the Red Cross declared its first national blood crisis, its worst blood shortage in more than a decade.
The danger to patients' lives during this crisis could have been significantly reduced if donation restrictions in the LGBTQ community were lifted.
Data from the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law indicate that removing restrictions entirely, compared with a 12-month waiting period, would result in nearly 300,000 additional pints of donated blood annually, and could help save the lives of more than a million people.
If the Biden administration’s proposed new recommendations become final, the country’s blood banks will be urged to scrap the previous policy and instead ask all donors, regardless of their actual or perceived gender or sexual orientation, whether they have had sex with a new partner, or more than one sexual partner in the past three months. Based on their answers, they would either be allowed to donate blood or asked to wait three months.
In his letter, Attorney General Bonta called for increasing blood availability nationwide, addressing critical shortage issues and saving more lives; and eliminating discriminatory aspects of current guidance that violate constitutional principles of Equal Protection.
In filing today's comment letter, Attorney General Bonta joined those from Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
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