President Will Soon Be Able To Donate Blood

Gay men push to end 30-year blood donation ban

By Cheryl Wetzstein   The Washington Times
Sunday, December 1, 2013

A push by activists to ease the 30-year-old blanket ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men faces a key test this week as a federal panel hears results of the latest research. The findings will be released amid growing pressure from politicians and advocates, including college students, to change the policy.

Critics say the ban is a hangover from the early, fear-filled days of AIDS, stigmatizing gay men and ignoring advances in treatment and detection in the decades since.

Supporters of the policy say politics, not science, is driving the proposed change, which would heighten the risk of spreading HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, when the medical demand for blood donations is decreasing.

Under Food and Drug Administration rules, men who have had sex with men (MSM) since 1977 are ineligible to donate blood. An acknowledgment of having male homosexual relations at any time in one’s life is enough to disqualify a potential donor.

“This policy is discriminatory and inadequate,” said a petition drive at WhiteHouse.gov started in early November by students at the University of Michigan.

The students’ solution is to change the questionnaire to ask prospective blood donors, “Have you had unprotected sexual contact with a new partner in the past 12 weeks?”

A “yes” answer would trigger a deferral “based on the window period of HIV,” the petition said. “This change avoids discrimination and addresses risky behaviors that presently go overlooked. All individuals should be eligible to donate if they otherwise pass all of the FDA’s requirements, including a disease-free status,” the petition said.

Others say safety must remain the priority.

“The pressure for change is coming not because of a shortage of blood, but because of the politics of sexual orientation,” said Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council.

Such politicization “should not play any role in the decision making on a health-related issue, on protecting the health of the American people,” he said…

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