The Trump administration has heard the concerns of pro-life organizations and pro-life Americans upset by the news that the FDA had purchased the body parts of aborted babies for research.
As LifeNews reported in August, shocking revelations indicated the Food and Drug Administration signed a new contract to acquire body parts from aborted babies to be transplanted into so-called humanized mice. The grisly experiments allow mice to have a functioning human immune system for research purposes.
Now, the Trump administration has canceled the contract with Advanced Bioscience Resources, a company that buys and sells aborted baby parts from Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses.
The Health and Human Services department said late Monday that it canceled the contract with the company because it didn’t include “appropriate protections” for fetal tissue procurement. The agency said in a statement that it has “initiated a comprehensive review of all research involving fetal tissue to ensure consistency with statutes and regulations governing such research.”
“After a recent review of a contract between Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc. and the Food and Drug Administration to provide human fetal tissue to develop testing protocols, HHS was not sufficiently assured that the contract included the appropriate protections applicable to fetal tissue research or met all other procurement requirements. As a result, that contract has been terminated, and HHS is now conducting an audit of all acquisitions involving human fetal tissue to ensure conformity with procurement and human fetal tissue research laws and regulations. In addition, HHS has initiated a comprehensive review of all research involving fetal tissue to ensure consistency with statutes and regulations governing such research, and to ensure the adequacy of procedures and oversight of this research in light of the serious regulatory, moral, and ethical considerations involved. Finally, HHS is continuing to review whether adequate alternatives exist to the use of human fetal tissue in HHS funded research and will ensure that efforts to develop such alternatives are funded and accelerated.”
Although the move is a good step, one pro-life group said more protections are needed to ensure the FDA and HHS do not sign other agreements to purchase aborted baby parts in the future.
“Canceling a single contract and conducting a review is a small step forward, but overall is completely inadequate,” said Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser in a statement.
The department appears to be moving in that direction. HHS is also conducting an audit of all acquisitions involving human fetal tissue to “ensure conformity with procurement and human fetal tissue research laws and regulations,” the statement says.
The agency also said it would continue reviewing alternatives to human fetal tissue in HHS funded research “and will ensure that efforts to develop such alternatives are funded and accelerated.”
Earlier, some 48 national and state pro-life leaders urged HHS to end the government’s use of aborted fetal tissue for research and turn to ethical alternatives.
The letter reads, in part:
“We were shocked and dismayed at the news report that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has signed a contract to purchase ‘fresh’ aborted fetal organs from Advanced Bioscience Resources, for the purpose of creating humanized mice with human immune systems. We expect far better of our federal agencies – especially under the leadership of a courageous pro-life president – entrusted with the health of American citizens. It is completely unacceptable to discover that the FDA is using federal tax dollars and fomenting demand for human body parts taken from babies who are aborted. …The federal government must find ethical alternatives as soon as possible, and should end all association with those who participate in any trafficking or procurement of aborted baby organs. No taxpayer dollars should continue to go to this gruesome practice.”
Signers of the letter include SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser; Life Issues Institute President Bradley Mattes; Family Research Council President Tony Perkins; March for Life President Jeanne Mancini; Concerned Women for America President Penny Young Nance; Americans United for Life President Catherine Glenn Foster; Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins; David Daleiden, Project Lead for The Center for Medical Progress; and this writer.
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