WASHINGTON — The chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on
Pro-Life Activities praised a decision by the U.S. secretary of the Department
of Health and Human Services to end a Food and Drug Administration contract
with a company "whose business is to procure aborted baby parts for
research."
After this important "first step," it "remains
incumbent" on the Trump administration "to act quickly to cease all
funding for research involving body parts from aborted babies," New York
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan said in a Sept. 27 statement.
The cardinal was referring to the Sept. 24 announcement by HHS
Secretary Alex Azar that his agency was terminating an FDA contract with
Advanced Bioscience Resources in California to provide human fetal tissue to
develop testing protocols.
HHS also said it will do an audit of "all acquisitions
involving human fetal tissue" and "all research involving fetal
tissue" to make sure the statutes and regulations governing such research
are being followed. Such oversight, it said, also is necessary "in light
of the serious regulatory, moral and ethical considerations involved."
Cardinal Dolan, in his statement, said that "the question is
not exclusively what is permitted by law, but what is right and just."
"For the federal government to create a demand for abortion
and use these children's body parts for research is wrong," he said.
He also said the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other
pro-life leaders and organizations also want answers to questions they asked of
Azar, he said, in a Sept. 11 letter "regarding the funding and use of
fetal tissue from aborted babies."
The letter to Azar, signed by more than 40 pro-life leaders,
followed news reports about the FDA signing the contract "to purchase
'fresh' aborted fetal organs from Advanced Bioscience Resources, for the
purpose of creating humanized mice with human immune systems."
The signers said they were "shocked and dismayed" by
this news. "We expect far better of our federal agencies — especially
under the leadership of a courageous pro-life president — entrusted with the
health of American citizens," they wrote.
They added, "It is completely unacceptable to discover that
the FDA is using federal tax dollars and fomenting demand for human body parts
taken from babies who are aborted."
In his Sept. 27 statement, Cardinal Dolan said, "Under a
pro-life administration, there is simply no room for callously using aborted
children to further a research goal. This must stop immediately. Our government
should only use taxpayer dollars for ethical research."