After pro-life organizations and individuals voiced concerns over an FDA contract which would allow the agency to procure parts of aborted babies with taxpayer dollars, the Trump administration has terminated the contract and opened an investigation.
The shocking revelations came after an August piece from LifeNews, first reported the existence of the contract. The experiments would introduce human cells into mice in order to replicate a functioning human immune system for research purposes.
The Department of Health and Human Services released a statement Monday:
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.
The statement went on to inform that an investigation has been opened to review all research which involves fetal cells and will explore alternatives to the use of human fetal tissue.
While this seems like a step in the right direction, Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser believes more must be done to prevent the FDA and HHS from entering into a similar contract in the future:
“Canceling a single contract and conducting a review is a small step forward, but overall is completely inadequate,” Dannenfelser said.
According to a CNSNews report, the FDA contract would require “fresh human tissues” in order to create “chimeric animals” which have a human immune system. The report explains why these cells should be taken from aborted babies:
Because it would not be able to create its “humanized mice” without fresh tissue taken from aborted babies, the FDA also has an interest in the continuation of legalized abortions at a stage in fetal development when the tissue needed to create these mice can be retrieved from the aborted baby.
CNSNews contacted the FDA with a series of questions to which the FDA responded with a 3 paragraph statement denying direct involvement in the procurement of these samples, which they say is left to a non-profit Tissue Procurement Organization (TPO).
The need for more stringent regulation of this industry was made clear in a 2015 report which exposed Planned Parenthood’s practice of deviating from standard procedures in order to produce more adequate samples.
The video which accompanied this report showed a conversation between Melissa Farrell, Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast and two investigative actors who goaded her into revealing that:
Planned Parenthood had been involved in the selling of aborted baby parts for some time and was very familiar with the use of fetal remains in the production of humanized mice. She discussed how the Houston affiliate for which she worked was “resistant” to recent efforts by Planned Parenthood Federation of America to standardize fetal tissue sales throughout the participating affiliates because “we’ve been doing our own thing for a long time.”
Farrell went on to inform the actors that the organization would “deviate from our standard in order” to ensure better samples for research. She acknowledged that it is illegal for them to alter the timing or manner of the procedure for the purpose of ensuring organs were fit for use by researchers.
And today we celebrate...