On Friday, Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that the restrictions applied by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) on blood donations from homossexual men are unconstitutional, in a historic decision for LGBT rights in Brazil.
The trial started in 2017, after the Brazilian Socialist Party launched a legal challenge against a sanitary norm forbidding men who had sex with other men over a 12-month period to donate blood, but this was blocked by Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes. Now, as blood donations have fallen due to social isolation measures, the Court decided to review the case once more, even after a request by the Attorney General’s Office to reject the class action.
The trial ended with 8 votes in favor and 3 against. Justices Celso de Mello, Ricardo Lewandoswki and Marco Aurélio Mello were against the decision, claiming it is up to the health authorities to decide when there is no risk of infection by STDs such as HIV. Minister Alexandre de Moraes was in favor of lifting the ban, as long as the blood was stored long enough to make effective tests.
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