Bill Text: CA AJR50 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Blood donation.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 55-2)
Status: (Passed) 2014-09-11 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 170, Statutes of 2014. [AJR50 Detail]
Download: California-2013-AJR50-Chaptered.html
BILL NUMBER: AJR 50 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
RESOLUTION CHAPTER 170
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE SEPTEMBER 11, 2014
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR SEPTEMBER 11, 2014
ADOPTED IN SENATE AUGUST 29, 2014
ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 21, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 21, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 20, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Bloom
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Ammiano, Eggman, Ting, Achadjian,
Alejo, Atkins, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan,
Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Cooley, Dababneh, Daly, Dickinson, Fong,
Frazier, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Hall, Roger
Hernández, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lowenthal, Maienschein,
Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Pan, Perea, John A. Pérez, V.
Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Skinner, Stone, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, and Yamada)
(Coauthor: Senator Leno)
AUGUST 5, 2014
Relative to blood donation.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AJR 50, Bloom. Blood donation.
This measure would request that the President of the United States
encourage, and that the Secretary of the United States Department of
Health and Human Services adopt, policies that repeal the current
donor suitability policies of the federal Food and Drug
Administration regarding the donation of blood by men who have had
sex with another man.
WHEREAS, California law prohibits discrimination against
individuals on the basis of actual or perceived sex, sexual
orientation, gender identity, and gender-related appearance and
behavior; and
WHEREAS, The current federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
donor deferral policy, first established in 1983 when the FDA had no
way of testing blood or plasma for HIV, effectively prohibits blood
donation by men who have had sex with another man even one time since
1977. The FDA essentially classifies all sexually active gay and
bisexual men in the highest-risk blood donor category, the same
category as IV drug users and people who have spent more than five
years since 1980 in a country that has mad cow disease. Even with a
clean bill of health, a gay man is considered more of a threat to the
blood supply than a straight man who was treated for chlamydia,
syphilis, gonorrhea, venereal warts, and genital herpes within the
past year. In 40 states, a man can even give blood immediately
following a tattoo or 12 months after having sex with a prostitute;
and
WHEREAS, The American Red Cross (ARC) has joined the American
Association for Blood Banks (AABB) and America's Blood Centers (ABC)
in asking for a reevaluation of current donor donation deferral
policies; and
WHEREAS, The American Medical Association (AMA) voted on June 18,
2013, to oppose the decades long ban by the FDA finding it is
discriminatory and not based on sound science, and recommends that
each donor be evaluated on an individual basis and not based on their
sexual orientation alone; and
WHEREAS, In May 2013, the nonprofit Canadian Blood Services, which
manages that nation's blood supply, announced the repeal of the
policy banning men who have had sex with another man from donating
blood and the replacement of that ban with a deferral policy; and
WHEREAS, The nations of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Hungary,
Japan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, among others, have adopted
blood donor policies providing a 12-month deferral period for men who
have had sex with another man. In addition, France, Spain, Italy,
Russia, and Portugal have adopted blood donor policies that measure
risk against a set of behaviors, sexual and otherwise, rather than
the sex of a person's sexual partner or partners; and
WHEREAS, The AABB, ABC, and ARC, on March 9, 2006, at the Blood
Products Advisory Committee of the FDA, at a workshop titled
"Behavior-Based Blood Donors Deferrals in the Era of Nucleic Acid
Testing (NAT)," issued a joint statement affirming that they believe
that the current lifetime deferral for men who have had sex with
other men is medically and scientifically unwarranted and recommended
that the deferral criteria be modified and made comparable with
criteria for other groups at increased risk for sexual transmission
of transfusion-transmitted infections; and
WHEREAS, It does not appear rational to broadly differentiate
sexual transmission via responsible male-to-male sexual activity from
transmission via responsible heterosexual activity on scientific
grounds. To many, this differentiation is unfair, creates stigma
without any justifiable public health imperative, and results in
negative attitudes to blood donor eligibility criteria and blood
collection facilities; and
WHEREAS, Blood banks in the United States routinely operate with a
short blood supply. After significant disasters or national
emergencies, the AABB, ABC, and ARC have each reported regions
operating with less than two days supply of blood; and
WHEREAS, Many men who have sex with men are healthy, do not
present a risk of introducing a transfusion transmissible infection
such as HIV into the nation's blood supply, and wish to be donors
without compromising the safety or reliability of the supply. These
men wish to join their neighbors in expression of a common altruistic
form of civic engagement; and
WHEREAS, On July 11, 2014, a nationwide blood drive was held to
bring attention to the current FDA deferral policy and help save
lives; and
WHEREAS, Students and administrators have begun protesting the FDA
policy, including one notable example from 2008 when San Jose State
University president Don Kassing banned blood drives from the school'
s campus, writing in a memo to the campus community that the "FDA's
lifetime blood donor deferral affecting gay men violates our
nondiscrimination policy"; and
WHEREAS, The AABB, ABC, AMA, ARC, and the HIV Medicine Association
(HIVMA) acknowledge the concern that a hasty relaxation of deferral
criteria may add uncertainty to protection of the blood supply unless
reliable data is available to avoid that result. The blood
collectors are willing to assist in collecting data regarding the
actual impact of changes in the deferral, in order to allow for
informed decisionmaking, and for the development of additional,
appropriate interventions to ameliorate the impact; and
WHEREAS, Technological advances such as individual NAT, pathogen
inactivation, or added means of screening hold promise to
substantially reduce the risk that transfusion transmissible
infections from all donors, including men who have had sex with men,
could be introduced into the blood supply, and federal advisory
committees have encouraged the FDA to develop these technologies
further. Within seven to 10 days, it can be said with 99.9 percent
accuracy whether or not a blood sample is HIV-positive and the chance
of an HIV-positive blood sample testing negative after the seven to
10-day window is about one in two million; and
WHEREAS, If the current men who have sex with another man ban on
donation were completely lifted, the Williams Institute estimates
that an additional 130,150 men would likely donate 219,200 additional
pints of blood each year. That analysis also suggests that lifting
the ban could increase the total annual United States blood supply by
0.6% to 1.4%, which may seem modest, but would occur in an
environment where blood supply shortages are common; and
WHEREAS, In summary, the AABB, ABC, AMA, HIVMA, and ARC believe
that the deferral period for men who have had sex with other men
should be modified and that this consideration should also be
extended to donors of human cells, tissues, and cellular and
tissue-based products; and
WHEREAS, FDA guidelines followed by blood banks throughout the
United States inadvertently create unjustified stigma directed
towards gay, bisexual, transgender, and heterosexual males on the
basis that they have had sex with another male since 1977; and
WHEREAS, The AABB, ABC, and ARC are required to follow the FDA
guidelines, which consequently are in conflict with state
nondiscrimination policies; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the California State Legislature calls upon
the President of the United States to encourage, and the Secretary
of the United States Department of Health and Human Services to
adopt, policies that repeal the current donor suitability policies of
the FDA regarding blood donation by men who have had sex with
another man and, instead, direct the FDA to develop science-based
policies; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
States, to the Secretary of the United States Department of Health
and Human Services, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and
Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.
