Kerry's new letter on lifting lifetime ban on gay blood donors

As you know, I sent a letter to your office along with 17 of my Senate colleagues on March 4 requesting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initiate a review of the deferral guidelines for potential blood donors, particularly the policy that bans all men who have sex with men (MSM) from ever donating blood. As we stated, the American Red Cross, America's Blood Centers, the AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks), the American Medical Association, and many others have all publicly called on the FDA to modify the lifetime deferral policy for MSM, with the blood banks asserting that the current ban is “medically and scientifically unwarranted.”

I was therefore surprised to discover that, rather than responding to our letter, the FDA apparently immediately released a statement to the press dismissing our call for a review. The statement claimed that the lifetime “deferral policy is based on current science and data.”

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The FDA defers all donors deemed to be of high risk for HIV, including those who have had sex with prostitutes and those who have had recent sexual intercourse with someone who has HIV. However, unless these instances involved homosexual activity, the deferral period is one year rather than an outright lifetime ban. Additionally, there is zero expressed concern with unprotected heterosexual sex during the two to three week window period in which the administered HIV tests on donated blood are unreliable. If there is scientific data to support this apparent double standard in deferral periods, I would request the FDA share this information.

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We all understand and strongly support medically justified blood donor deferral policies to ensure recipients of blood transfusions only receive safe and healthy blood products. Current science does not, however, justify a blanket lifetime ban on men who have sex with men. In my home state of Massachusetts, gay men can today marry their partners. Yet, pursuant to this FDA policy, these same married men are prohibited from contributing to the blood supply for the rest of their lives, while a heterosexual who has had sex with a prostitute need only wait a year. That does not strike me as a sound scientific conclusion.