Conservatives are targeting $20 million in NIH research allegedly using fetal tissue
Kylie Cheung at Abortion, Every Day:
Conservatives have been doing a victory lap this week: Right-wing media outlets and anti-abortion groups claim to have successfully lobbied the Trump administration to pull over $20 million from over a dozen research projects that may be using human fetal tissue (HFT). But here’s what they won’t tell you: One of the studies they’re so proud to have defunded was seeking to cure brain cancer in children. Abortion, Every Day has learned that the ‘pro-life’ movement pushed to eliminate funding for research into neuroblastoma—a rare type of aggressive cancer most commonly found in children under five years old. Let’s back up: Over the last several decades, a range of life-saving medical developments would have been impossible without HFT research, which sometimes uses tissue from fetuses or embryos. We have HFT research to thank for vaccines and treatments for Zika virus, HIV, covid, measles, chickenpox, diabetes, infertility, shingles, and more. Anti-abortion activists have been threatening this progress for generations, advocating for a ban on federally funded HFT research. During the first Trump administration, the Health and Human Services Department banned the National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists from conducting research with newly-obtained HFT. The Biden administration reversed this policy in 2021.
Then, last week, Breitbart claimed to identify 17 NIH-funded research projects that use fetal tissue—leading an outpouring of conservative pressure against the studies.
[...] Anti-abortion groups are thrilled. “This is a long‐overdue step in the right direction,” said Carol Tobias, President of National Right to Life. Conveniently, the groups and publications that led the charge don’t specify what the impacted research entails. So we did some research here at AED. The research targeted in this campaign explores a range of conditions: chromosomal disorders, miscarriage, and birth defects; child cancer; brain cancer; autoimmune diseases; Parkinson’s; eye disease and vision disorders; Down syndrome; and more.
The so-called “pro-life” movement are anything but pro-life, and their cheerleading for defunding a study seeking to cure brain cancer in children reveals their cruelty.
