Congress: University Broke Law Buying Brains of Aborted Babies for Students to Dissect

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Aug 26, 2016   |   10:40AM   |   Washington, DC

A U.S. House committee is recommending that criminal charges be filed against the University of New Mexico after it allowed summer camp students to be involved in dissecting aborted babies’ brains, Fox News reports.

The House Select Panel on Infant Lives, chaired by pro-life Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, wrote a letter to New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas accusing the university of illegally transferring aborted babies’ body parts. Blackburn and the panel sent Balderas evidence that they uncovered and asked him to conduct a criminal investigation.

“Documentation obtained by the panel in the course of its investigation reflects that the transfer of fetal tissue from SWWO [an abortion clinic] to UNM for research purposes is a direct violation of New Mexico’s Jonathan Spradling Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act,” Blackburn wrote.

Here’s more from the report:

Blackburn told Balderas that university officials trained new abortion doctors, referred women to outside abortion clinics, sent UNM faculty and residents to an abortion clinic during transition between owners, extended “voluntary faculty” status to local abortionists, supplied residents and fellows to perform abortions for [Southwestern Women’s Options], and put pressure on employees and students for political support, all in violation of state law.

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Blackburn’s letter was accompanied by a scathing 291-page report outlining the relationship between UNM and SWWO and the use and advocacy of aborted tissues for research.

“Today, UNM Hospital performs surgical abortions for any reason through 25 weeks gestation,” said the report. “Since the time when opposition to participating in abortion procedures was the predominant view of UNM medical staff, the culture appears to have changed—along with the composition of UNM hospital and clinic personnel—to one aggressively in favor of the expansion of abortion.”

UNM officials admitted that the tissues were used for research purposes.

A spokesman for the attorney general said their office is reviewing the evidence.

In the course of the Congressional investigation, the panel also uncovered shocking evidence that the university used some of the aborted babies’ body parts during summer camp programs for students.

The evidence came from a lab technician’s notebook at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. The technicians worked with the abortion facility to obtain aborted babies’ parts.

Live Action News first reported the gruesome new piece of evidence about the summer camp:

In explicit detail, the journal describes various body parts of aborted babies and, in some cases, what happened to them.

Perhaps the most disturbing revelation to come from the journal is a description of baby brains that were passed on to someone who wanted to use them at a youth summer camp.

The journal notes:

5-24-12 “Asked clinic for digoxin treated tissue 24-28 wks. for methylation study & because [redacted] wants whole, fixed brains to dissect w/ summer camp students.” While details about the summer camp and the students remain scarce, the horror of having young people handle and cut into the brains of aborted, likely viable babies – possibly without their knowledge – is hardly conceivable.

A university official later confirmed that it was true.

Dr. Paul Roth, chancellor of the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and dean of the School of Medicine, admitted on camera: “Yes, we had a faculty member who obtained some tissue, and during one of these summer workshops, uh, dissected I think one or two fetal brains.”

Amid public outrage about the news, other university officials tried to downplay the incident. A spokesperson told told the Albuquerque Journal that it was an educational research program called “Neuroscience Summer Experience,” not a camp. They said participants included undergraduate and graduate students from the university, or children of faculty members. They also said a faculty member dissected the aborted babies’ brains, not the students.

University officials did not say how old or how many students participated in the program, according to the newspaper.

The evidence is part of a larger Congressional investigation that formed after a series of undercover videos revealed Planned Parenthood may be selling aborted babies’ body parts in violation of the law. Since then, the panel has uncovered a growing list of evidence that abortion facilities have violated federal laws.

Earlier in June, the panel sent evidence to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicating that Planned Parenthood and the human tissue procurement company StemExpress may have violated patients’ privacy under HIPPA.

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