FDA eases restrictions on gay and bisexual men donating blood | USA TODAY

The Food and Drug Administration will now permit gay and bisexual to donate blood without abstaining from sex, rolling back a decades-old rule.

RELATED: US support for LGBTQ rights continues to grow, according to new survey

Health regulators on Thursday finalized a long-awaited plan that will allow more gay and bisexual men to donate blood, potentially expanding the number of eligible donors in the U.S.

For decades, blood banks have implemented restrictions preventing men who have sex with men from donating, citing concerns their blood could lead to the spread of HIV.

Now, the Food and Drug Administration is ending a requirement that men in this category must abstain from sex for three months prior to donating.

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3 comments

  1. Think about the people that wouldn’t want impure blood, where is their consideration in all of this? It was restricted for a reason and the reasons weren’t based on hate, it’s based on the consequences of giving recipients blood from LGBT men. To appease both sides, I think it would be best if an effort was made to give recipients an option to choose whether they’d want blood from pure or impure people.

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