The White House on Tuesday responded to
increasing pressure from advocates to lift restrictions on gay and
bisexual men who wish to donate blood.
The FDA adopted a lifetime ban on gay
men donating blood in 1983 in response to the AIDS crisis. In 2015,
the agency relaxed the ban to allow for donations from gay men who
have abstained from sexual contact for 12 months. In 2020, the FDA
shortened the deferral period to 3 months to address the need for
blood during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The policy came under fire after the
Red Cross declared its first-ever national blood supply crisis.
Twenty Democrats and two independents who caucus with the Democrats
called on the FDA to end the restrictions. LGBTQ rights advocates the
Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and GLAAD also voiced their opposition to
the ban.
(Related: HRC,
senators call on FDA to lift gay, bisexual blood ban.)
In a statement given to ABC News, the
White House said that President Joe Biden is committed to ensuring
the blood donation policy is based on science, not stigma.
“The legacy of bans on blood donation
continues to be painful, especially for LGBTQI+ communities,” the
White House said. “The President is committed to ensuring that
this policy is based on science, not fiction or stigma. While there
are no new decisions to announce at the moment, the FDA is currently
supporting the ADVANCE study, a scientific study to develop relevant
scientific evidence and inform any potential policy changes.”
ADVANCE, which is funded by the FDA, is
a study looking at how the U.S. could safely replace the time-based
policy.
GLAAD said that ending the restrictions
would add about 360,000 male donors to the system. The additional
blood “could save the lives of more than a million people,” GLAAD
said on social media.
France, Israel, and the UK are among
the nations that have already eased their restrictions on gay and
bisexual men who wish to donate blood.