California Attorney General Rob Bonta led a 22-state coalition this Friday in support of the new policy proposed by the Biden Administration that would make it easier for the LGBTQ population 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, for its acronym in English? and the US 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 donating blood is a holdover from a shameful and bigoted past. It's time to scrap it and move to a risk-based, sound science approach to screening for all blood donors. It will not only protect LGBTQ people from the stigma of being singled out, but it will also help countless more patients by giving the nation's blood supply a huge boost."
According to the American Red Cross, every two seconds someone in the US 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, as well as 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 have 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 were lifted in the LGBTQ community.
Data from the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law indicates that removing the restrictions completely, compared to 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 new recommendations proposed by the Biden Administration become final, blood banks across the country will be urged to scrap previous policy and instead ask all donors, regardless of their actual or perceived gender or sexual orientation, if they have had sex with a new partner, or more than one sexual partner in the last three months. Depending on their answers, they would be allowed to donate blood or asked to wait three months.
In his letter, Attorney General Bonta called for increasing the availability of blood across the country, addressing critical shortage issues and saving more lives; and eliminate the discriminatory aspects of the current orientation that violate the constitutional principles of Equal Protection.
In submitting today's comment letter, Attorney 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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