California Assembly Bill AJR13 Amended / Bill

 BILL NUMBER: AJR 13AMENDED BILL TEXT AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 17, 2009 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Ammiano APRIL 2, 2009 Relative to blood donation. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AJR 13, as amended, Ammiano. 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  discriminatory   donor suitability and deferral  policies of the  FDA   federal Food and Drug Administration  regarding  blood   the  donation  of   blood and blood products  by gay, bisexual, transgender, and heterosexual males. Fiscal committee: no. WHEREAS, The California State Legislature encourages nondiscrimination against individuals on the basis of actual or perceived sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression; 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 guidelines that treat all donors equally; and WHEREAS, The current federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policy, passed in 1985, prohibits any man who has had sex with another man since 1977 from donating blood for the rest of his life; and  WHEREAS, The American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates and the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA), within the Infectious Disease Society of America, have requested that the FDA abandon these current donor policies in favor of policies consistent with sound science; 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. Blood donors who are judged to be at risk of exposure via heterosexual routes are deferred for one year, while men who have had sex with another man even once since 1977 are permanently deferred; and   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  and discriminatory, resulting   , creates stigma without any justifiable public health imperative, and results  in negative attitudes to blood donor eligibility  criteria, blood collection facilities, and, in some cases, to the cancellation of blood drives. The AABB, ABC, and ARC think that the FDA should consider that the permanent deferral standard, which is seen as scientifically marginal and unfair or discriminatory by individuals with the identified characteristic, may motivate those individuals to actively ignore the prohibition and provide blood collection facilities with less accurate information; and   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. Every day, cancer patients, people with hemophilia, and others who need regular blood transfusions rely on a readily available supply of blood. During a crisis, the ability to collect blood in the affected region is compromised while the need increases. The resulting shortage could lead to catastrophic results; and   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, The AABB, ABC,  AMA, HIVMA,  and ARC acknowledge the  concern that relaxation of deferral criteria may increase the number of presenting donors who are HIV positive. However, this impact has not been measured directly, it has only been modeled using what may be incomplete assumptions.   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; 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  to be consistent with deferrals for those judged to be at risk of infection via heterosexual routes  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  discriminate against   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  discriminatory   donor suitability and deferral  policies of the FDA regarding blood donation by men who have had sex with other men  and, instead, direct the FDA to develop science based policies consistent with the history described in this resolution  ; 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.