House lawmakers wrestled Thursday over the importance of fetal tissue in research on devastating illnesses, with Republicans calling to end government funding for such research and Democrats arguing to spare it.
Witnesses at the Oversight Committee hearing sparred with lawmakers and each other about whether fetal tissue was necessary or replaceable in medical research.
GOP Reps. Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Jim Jordan of Ohio, the conservative lawmakers who called for the hearing, want a ban on government funding for fetal tissue. The National Institutes of Health spent about $100 million in 2017 on medical research involving the tissue, which are obtained from abortions.
Sally Temple, the former president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, said the science was being misrepresented and that researchers had told her a ban in funding would be “devastating” to their efforts to find cures and treatments.
Testifying against the use of fetal tissue were Tara Sander Lee and David Prentice, both of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List.
“There is no scientific necessity for the continued taxpayer funding of fresh fetal tissue, organs, and body parts from induced abortion,” Prentice said.
The debate has garnered attention from the Trump administration, which is proceeding cautiously in making a decision. The NIH has instructed its own scientists to pause research using fetal tissue, and announced that it will spend around $20 million awarding grants to organizations that seek effective alternatives to fetal tissue. Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services is reviewing its procedures on the matter, meeting with medical groups, ethicists, and anti-abortion advocates.
Temple said she was open to exploring alternatives but added the caveat that any new tissue would need to be compared against fetal tissue to see whether it is effective.
“Fetal cells and tissue have unique properties that cannot always be replicated by other cell types,” she said. “This tissue would be discarded if not donated for crucial biomedical research.”
Lawmakers who supported the research at the hearing said that scientists and medical groups told them it was vital for developing treatments or cures to conditions such as HIV, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
“For more than 80 years, scientists have relied upon the unique qualities of fetal tissue cells, which are able to adapt to new environments in ways that adult cells are not,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill.
But Lee argued that alternatives existed, citing adult stem cells, tissue donated after a biopsy, tissue donated after death, and umbilical cords.
“We do not need fetal body parts from aborted babies to achieve future scientific and medical advancements,” she said. “Very little research is actually being done that currently relies on abortion-derived fetal tissues.”
Lee said vaccines for polio, and measles, mumps and rubella, all said to involve fetal tissue, were also studied in animal cells and used alternatives now.
Jordan honed in on the involvement of Planned Parenthood. He said he did not think the organization should be receiving government fund at all, pointing to a series of secretly taped videos by the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress that purported to show Planned Parenthood staff discussing the sale of fetal tissue and altering the way they perform abortions to collect more intact specimens. Planned Parenthood has denied wrongdoing and has been cleared of breaking the law in more than a dozen states. Congressional investigations did not yield evidence that fetal tissue had been sold for profit.
A select investigative committee created in the House as a result of the videos recommended the government stop funding fetal tissue.
Temple said she believed Planned Parenthood should continue to receive government funding for their women’s health services.
“The researchers respect and are enormously appreciative of the women who give this gift,” Temple said of fetal tissue received after an abortion. “We take that tissue and use it for life-saving therapies.”
Update: This post has been updated to add detail about the congressional investigations.
