Bill Text: CA AJR50 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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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-Amended.html

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BILL NUMBER: AJR 50	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  AUGUST 20, 2014

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Bloom
    (   Coauthors:   Assembly Members 
 Ammiano,   Eggman,   and Ting   )

    (   Coauthor:   Senator   Leno
  ) 

                        AUGUST 5, 2014

   Relative to blood donation.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AJR 50, as amended, 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.
   Fiscal committee: no.



   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,  In February 2010, Sweden reduced its men who
have sex with another man deferral from a permanent ban to a 12-month
deferral period, joining the nations of Argentina, Australia,
Brazil, Hungary, Japan, and the United Kingdom.   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
 will take place   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, HIVMA, and ARC  
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% 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.