More than 130 members of Congress urge President Trump “to maintain your current fetal tissue research policy and to redirect funds toward ethical, successful alternatives to combat COVID-19.”
By Dave Andrusko
NRL News Today has carried literally dozens of posts detailing the depths to which the pro-abortion community will sink in exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic for its own purposes. That includes (but is not limited to)
- insisting that elective abortion is a “essential medical service” at a time when we are working hard to conserve medical supplies to battle the lethal COVID-19 pandemic
- Expanding access to mail-order and telemedicine abortions—essentially seeking “Do-It-Yourself” abortions—by persuading the FDA to waive its “REMS restrictions or to use its enforcement discretion” to “allow certified prescribers to use telehealth for Mifepristone.”
Add another: The Trump Administration has gone the extra mile to ensure that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will not be funding its own research that uses tissue from elective abortions and will continue to pursue development of ethical alternatives. On March 26, 2020, 15 state Attorneys General wrote to President Trump , stating that the use of aborted fetal tissue could help “accelerate vaccine development to combat COVID-19,” as well as “study the impact to pregnant women and children.”
“We ask you to end your Fetal Tissue Ban to allow our top scientists the ability to solve this global health crisis,” the Attorneys General concluded.
On Tuesday, in stark contrast, more than 130 Members of Congress wrote the President to stay the course.
The letter began by thanking Mr. Trump for his “bold, consistent efforts to protect the sanctity of all human life, particularly for the youngest and the most vulnerable. …Your Administration’s decisive actions to protect human life and human dignity on every front have brought great hope to our country.”
The letter incisively explains why the desire to use tissue taken from elective abortions is ethically misguided and representative of science that has long since been surpassed by the work of sound alternatives.
As I always do when writing about this issue, I asked David Prentice, Ph.D. to summarize the major points of the letter in layman’s terms:
“The Members of Congress rightly point out that the use of aborted fetal tissue is poor, ineffective science, an unethical, grisly use of taxpayers’ money, and will save no lives,” Prentice began. “Destroying life and trafficking in baby body parts for experiments can add nothing to the arsenal being built against the COVID-19 (the current coronavirus) pandemic. Rather, as they point out, there are a multitude of modern possibilities for treatments and vaccines, none of which require aborted fetal tissue, and all with significantly greater potential to help people fight against the coronavirus.”
What are some examples, I asked?
“There are over 40 potential vaccines now under development, including modern laboratory techniques for producing DNA vaccines as well as new, ethically-derived cell lines for vaccine production. Genetically engineered mice made without the use of aborted fetal tissue can be used to test potential drug candidates and can even produce antibodies to fight the coronavirus. Various new anti-viral drugs as well as re-purposed drugs approved for treating other conditions, show promise against the virus.”
What about adult stem cells, whose potential in many areas Prentice has extolled for years?
“Adult stem cells have already shown initial success at improving health of patients who developed severe pneumonia from COVID-19 infection,” he said, “All without any need for aborted fetal tissue. Our focus must be on developing therapeutic agents without an ethical taint. Ethical science is the best science.”
Prentice concluded, “The attempt by some scientists to exploit this crisis for their own ends is shameful.”