Major Pro-life Victory: HHS Cancels Huge Contract for Taxpayer-Funded Experimentation with Body Parts of Aborted Babies, Announces New Approach

Washington, D.C. – Following news that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) will not renew a major contract with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to fund research using the body parts of aborted babies, the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) and its research arm the Charlotte Lozier Institute, offered the following statements:

“This is a major pro-life victory and we thank President Trump for taking decisive action. It is outrageous and disgusting that we have been complicit, through our taxpayer dollars, in the experimentation using baby body parts. NIH has spent $120 million a year on grisly, unethical experiments involving the hearts, livers, bones, and brains harvested from babies too young and vulnerable to speak for themselves,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “President Trump knows we can do better as a nation and we are encouraged to see NIH Director Francis Collins carry out the President’s pro-life commitment. Taxpayer funding is better spent promoting alternatives that are already being used in the production of treatments, vaccines and medicines and to expand approaches that do not depend on the destruction of unborn children often through late-term abortion.”

Dr. David Prentice, vice president and research director at Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), SBA List’s research arm, added:

“Today’s move demonstrates NIH’s investment in scientifically-proven methods for research: adult stem cells, iPS cells, organoids, humanized mice constructed using postnatally sourced cells and improved non-human cell lines—just to name a few. All of these have been used in the production of treatments, vaccines and medicines currently on the market; the key is that our government will now invest in effective research methods that do not rely on the destruction of human life.”

SBA List and CLI have long called for the government to stop using aborted baby parts in federally funded research. In a recent Washington Examiner op-ed, Dr. Prentice and Congressman Jim Banks (R-In.) urged the federal government to follow the lead of 12 states that prohibit the trafficking and research of aborted fetal organs and tissue. CLI associate scholar Dr. Kathleen Schmainda joined with Congressman Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.) in a piece published by The Federalist in pressing the government to pursue ethical alternatives to using the bodies of aborted children. Writing for the Daily Signal, Dr. Prentice with Dr. Tara Sander Lee, presented NIH with three recommendations regarding alternatives to using aborted baby parts in research. In December, Prentice and Sander Lee testified before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on exploring alternatives to fetal tissue.

Together, SBA List and CLI hosted a recent staff briefing on Capitol Hill on research using fetal tissue. CLI’s Drs. Prentice, Sander Lee and James Sherley presented on the history of fetal tissue research at the federal levels, ethical alternatives to aborted fetal tissue, successful treatments using ethically-sourced research subjects and responses to commonly-heard arguments from supporters of using aborted baby parts in scientific experiments.

SBA List is a network of more than 787,000 pro-life Americans nationwide, dedicated to ending abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders.

Charlotte Lozier Institute was launched in 2011 as the education and research arm of Susan B. Anthony List. CLI is a hub for research and public policy analysis on some of the most pressing issues facing the United States and nations around the world. The Institute is named for a feminist physician known for her commitment to the sanctity of human life and equal career and educational opportunities for women. 

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