Canadian health officials removed the ban on blood donation from gay men. Here’s more on the removal of the homophobic law.
“A significant milestone toward a more inclusive blood donation system”
An old Canadian rule was preventing men from donating blood if they had sex with other men within three months of giving blood. As per Health Canada, the move is “a significant milestone toward a more inclusive blood donation system”. The recent years have seen several nations making similar moves by removing such bans. The change will be effective from 30 September. The services will not be asking prospective donors about their sexual orientation while screening. Instead, they will be asking about any high-risk sexual behaviors.
Several nations across the world were installing similar bans in the 1980s. However, according to experts, these bans have little effect. This is because currently, labs are screening blood with advanced technology for viruses such as HIV and Hepatitis. The UK lifted its ban on blood donation by gay men last year. Additionally, France, Denmark, Brazil, Greece, Hungary, and Denmark also removed similar bans. Prime Minister Trudeau’s party made a promise to end the ban during the federal elections in 2015. However, their failure to follow up on it resulted in a growing amount of criticism. On Thursday, Trudeau stated that this change was long overdue. Additionally, he called the current approach “discriminatory and wrong”.
Why was this law in place?
Canada first placed the ban in 1992 as a measure to prevent HIV from entering the bloodstream. In the 1980s around 2,000 people were infected with the virus because of tainted blood donations due to failures in testing. Additionally, during the same time 60,000 people were infected with Hepatitis C. Initially, it was a lifelong ban from donating. However, the policy eased in 2013 when men who had sex with other men were allowed to donate after a five-year-long abstinent period. There was a change later on and the period was eased to three months. The change is following a request from Canadian Blood Services for scrapping the rule. The organization collects blood and blood product donations from across the nation.
