Contact:
Alexah Rogge
202-225-6611
alexah.rogge@mail.house.gov
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rep. Fulcher signed a letter to support the Trump Administration’s decision to impose a rule to end all National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding of medical research using the fetal tissue of electively-aborted babies.
The rule also requires any NIH research grant applications to be reviewed by an ethics board to ensure, among other things, that such experimentation does not violate the Public Health Services Act. It is expected that NIH plans to spend $120 million on these research projects in FY2019. Finally, it requires Health & Human Services (HHS) to provide Congress with an annual report including the description, status, and review of all applications.
“It is wrong to use the most vulnerable of us for medical research,” said Congressman Fulcher. “I believe all life is precious. There is no more important role for government than to protect the sanctity of life. We must do all we can to meet that responsibility.”
Read the full letter to Secretary Azar here.
A Fox News poll found that nearly half of Americans oppose research using human fetal tissue. Additionally, the D.C.-based taxpayer watchdog group White Coast Waste Project and Pro-Life San Francisco published an op-ed in the Washington Examiner that noted the extensive use of human fetal tissue from elective abortions being used in animal experiments at colleges and universities in California and around the country. In some instances, the body parts came from aborted babies ranging from 8 to 24 weeks old.
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