The Obama administration announced [December 22] that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was lifting a lifetime ban on homosexual or bisexual men from donating blood, as long as they had not had sex for at least a year.

The FDA action contradicts a decision earlier this month from its own expert panel, which did not recommend changing the lifetime ban for men having sex with men, as well as hearing expert testimony that a one-year ban would not be adequate to protect public health.

A panel of 17 experts on the FDA's Blood Products Advisory Panel voted against the change this month, but [a Health and Human Services] panel had backed the one-year limit.

"In a press release, the FDA insisted that it had 'carefully examined and considered the available scientific evidence' and taken into account 'the recommendations of advisory committees to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the FDA' before making its decision," Johnson reports.

"Although a sliver of the population, men who have sex with men (MSM) make up more than 60 percent of all new AIDS cases," according to LifeSiteNews."The percentage of HIV-positive men who knowingly have sex with other men without using a condom has increased over the last decade, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to nearly two-thirds (62 percent)."

"Members of the Blood Products Advisory Committee were clearly reluctant to recommend any change to the current policy in the absence of a national program of comprehensive monitoring of the entire blood transfusion system from donor to recipient," Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council is quoted as saying.

"Research presented to the Committee confirmed the dramatically elevated risk of HIV infection among men who have sex with men (MSM) -- a risk 62 times higher than in the general public. This risk certainly justifies the highest level of vigilance, and political and social concerns must not be allowed to trump the public health," Sprigg said.

"It is shocking that the FDA did not even wait for a recommendation from their own Advisory Committee before rushing to the politically correct decision demanded by homosexual activist groups," Sprigg also said.