Nearly four dozen pro-life advocates have signed a letter calling on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to end the federal government’s involvement in research requiring the remains of aborted children.
“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,” reads the letter, which was organized by the conservative nonprofit group Susan B. Anthony List.
Signatories include March for Life President Jeanne Mancini, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Associate Director Greg Schleppenbach, and Catholic Medical Association Executive Director Mario R. Dickerson.
The letter added, “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 contract, which was signed on July 25, is good through July 25, 2019, according to a very thorough Aug. 7 CNS News report.
Advanced Bioscience Resources, which is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, won the $15,900 contract. ABR is also implicated heavily in a series of disturbing undercover videos released in 2015 by the pro-life activist David Daleiden, who also signed the letter published this week.
Daleiden’s group, the Center for Medical Progress, produced several surreptitiously recorded videos that year showing Planned Parenthood executives discussing reimbursement for providing organizations, including ABR, with parts salvaged from aborted children.
At the time of the videos’ release, Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest had supplied organs to ABR for roughly a decade, according to former Planned Parenthood medical director Katharine Sheehan.
A “presolicitation notice,” published on June 13 by the FDA and the General Services Administration, explained that the objective of the contract awarded to ABR is “to acquire tissue for humanized mice.”
The notice added that the contractor would “provide the human fetal tissue needed to continue the ongoing research being led by FDA.”
“Fresh human tissues are required,” it added, “for implantation into severely immune-compromised mice to create chimeric animals that have a human immune system.”
The FDA confirmed the authenticity of the contract, saying in a statement to CNS that it was following “all legal requirements” and meeting “the highest ethical standards.”
Just so we’re all clear here, fetal tissue used in research “is obtained from elective abortions,” according to the Congressional Research Service.
Previously, ABR had collected tissues form abortions performed at 17-22 weeks of pregnancy.
The letter published this week by pro-life leaders concludes, “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.”
The July 25 contract seems inconsistent with the Trump administration’s otherwise friendly treatment of the pro-life movement. Remember: Trump himself is the first U.S. president since the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide, to participate publicly in the March for Life.
Maybe this contract is an aberration. Or maybe it’s the product of the anti-Trump resistance inside the administration we keep hearing so much about. But the real test is: If the president learns of this contract, what will he do?
