New Records Show FDA Purchased Body Parts of Aborted Babies for Tax-Funded Research

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Jun 23, 2020   |   1:39PM   |   Washington, DC

Newly uncovered documents present a “horror show” of evidence about how the federal government used Americans’ tax dollars to buy aborted baby body parts for research.

Judicial Watch recently received the 165 pages of records from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration through a Freedom of Information Request and lawsuit. The watchdog organization has been investigating how tax dollars are being used to pay for unethical research using body parts from aborted babies.

“These documents are a horror show,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “These records show that the FDA was trafficking in human fetal parts. Incredibly, there continues to be a push to reopen these monstrous experiments!”

Until the Trump administration canceled the contract in September 2018, the FDA approved $96,370 for aborted baby parts with Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR), according to the investigation.

The eight contracts date back to 2012 and include requests for first- and second-trimester aborted baby parts that are “fresh and never frozen,” Judicial Watch reports.

The aborted baby parts were used to create “humanized mice” for experimentation. The grisly experiments allow mice to have a functioning human immune system for research purposes.

One document uncovered by the organization is a June 28, 2017, email exchange between a redacted FDA contract specialist and an ABR official. The FDA asks for a quote on the price of 16 “Human Fetal Tissue – Liver” and 16 “Human Fetal Tissue – Thymus.”

The FDA official also requested specific characteristics for the aborted baby parts, including an “age range 16-24 weeks” and tissue that “must be fresh and never frozen.”

REACH PRO-LIFE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE! Advertise with LifeNews to reach hundreds of thousands of pro-life readers every week. Contact us today.

Here’s more from the report:

A July 25, 2018, FDA “Order for Supplies or Services” to ABR called for the purchase of “humanized mice” for the period July 26, 2018, to July 25, 2019, for a contract amount of $15,900. The contract called for the provision of 15 sets of second trimester livers and thymuses, along with associated “HIV/HA/HB blood testing,” and shipping.

Two months later, the Trump administration canceled the contract with ABR based on the urging of pro-life leaders.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) canceled the contract with the company because it didn’t include “appropriate protections” for fetal tissue procurement. The agency said in a statement that it has “initiated a comprehensive review of all research involving fetal tissue to ensure consistency with statutes and regulations governing such research.”

HHS also announced plans to conduct an audit of all acquisitions involving human fetal tissue to “ensure conformity with procurement and human fetal tissue research laws and regulations.”

In December, it ended another contract between the National Institutes of Health and the University of California San Francisco that was using aborted baby body parts to create “humanized mice” for medical experimentation. A few months earlier, the NIH introduced new rules restricting taxpayer-funded research that uses aborted babies’ body parts.

Then, in January, the Trump administration took another step to defend unborn babies when it announced the formation of a new ethics board to investigate the use of aborted baby body parts in government-funded research.

Some scientists have complained about the Trump administration’s new ethics measures. But others say research using human fetal tissue has not been successful. Researchers at the Charlotte Lozier Institute said there also are ethical alternatives available to scientists that do not involve the destruction of a human life.

In 2018, a CNS News report shed light on how taxpayers’ money is being spent on these ethically troubling experiments. It exposed the NIH contract with University of California San Francisco for aborted body parts to conduct experiments involving “humanized mice.”

Aborted baby body parts used in the experiments were taken from healthy, later-term unborn babies. According to the report, the aborted babies were 18 to 24 weeks gestation from “women with normal pregnancies before elective termination for non-medical reasons.” Another article indicated aborted babies’ livers and thymuses also were used. They were between 20 weeks and 24 weeks gestation.

A 2017 journal article indicates researchers also used aborted babies’ intestines in their experiments.

Several years ago, the Center for Medical Progress undercover investigation raised concerns about potentially illegal sales of human body parts by Planned Parenthood. It also uncovered evidence of abortionists allegedly putting women’s lives at risk by altering abortion procedures to better harvest aborted baby parts. The investigators also found evidence of possible patient privacy violations.