On Monday night, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it had terminated the contract they had between Advanced Bioscience Resources to provide the organization with human tissue taken from aborted baby parts which they used “to develop testing protocols.” ABR is currently under federal investigation for working with Planned Parenthood to procure aborted baby body parts which the company was selling to government-funded researchers.
HHS said in their press release they were “not sufficiently assured that the contract included the appropriate protections applicable to fetal tissue research or met all other procurement requirements” and as a result terminated that contractual relationships and 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.”
Three years ago, the Center of Medical Progress released a disturbing series of undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood leadership discussing how they regularly, and illegally, harvested and sold aborted fetal organs and tissues. Unbeknownst to many, the series included interviews with representatives of ABR, whose technicians also worked inside Planned Parenthood in order to help procure fetal body parts from abortions and mail them to government-sponsored labs. ABR received a criminal referral and is under federal investigation as a result of CMP’s undercover work.
In a statement, CMP’s David Daleiden said, “So long as HHS trades taxpayer dollars for freshly-aborted baby body parts, the U.S. government is setting its own abortion quotas and sending the message that these children are worth more dead than alive.” CMP will also file a federal Freedom of Information Act request to dredge up details about the other $100 million in taxpayer money spent on HHS’s most recent round of contracts and projects related to aborted baby parts.
This summer, the FDA too renewed a purchase order with ABR for nearly $16,000 so they could receive aborted fetal organs and tissues to implant into lab mice. Last year, the National Institute of Health spent nearly $100 million on projects using aborted fetal body parts, a quarter of which went to intramural, government-run projects engaging in fetal experimentation.
If the government cares about morality or fiscal responsibility, this cannot continue.
The initial news that HHS was even working with ABR broke about two weeks ago. Several conservative outlets covered the story and demanded that HHS re-examine their relationship with them, both to stop the cause of trafficking aborted baby parts and to better manage taxpayer dollars. While it’s definitely a good thing that HHS has terminated this contract, it’s hard to imagine spending that much taxpayer dollars without realizing what ABR had worked closely with Planned Parenthood and is under federal investigation for that partnership.
Still, the quick action of HHS — even if it took negative press to do it — means that the organization really might be attempting to make changes within its organization and re-evaluate their goals.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
