The Trump administration has launched a review of state-funded research that uses fetal tissue, prompting many to speculate the start of a fresh battle on abortion rights in the US.
The Health and Human Service (HHS) department announced on Tuesday that it was cancelling a contract for Advanced Bioscience Resources to supply the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with fetal tissue for research purposes. This was followed by a statement from the HHS confirming a full audit on the use of such tissue.
“HHS was not sufficiently assured that the contract included the appropriate protections applicable to fetal tissue research or met all other procurement requirements,” the department . “HHS is now conducting an audit of all acquisitions involving human fetal tissue to ensure conformity with procurement and human fetal tissue research laws and regulations.”
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In the US, , including grants, contracts and other state spending, was dedicated to fetal tissue research just last year. It has been instrumental in developing vaccines and in fighting diseases such as . Even so, research using embryonic stem cells and fetal tissues is heavily policed: , such as South Dakota and Florida, prohibit the use of such cells in research, and there are staunch restrictions on profiting from their supply. The HHS now suggests these controls are inadequate.
Troubling move
The move is a troubling one from an administration headed by “the most pro-life president in modern history”, in one ’s words. Trump has , with evident results: in October 2017, the HHS released a strategic plan that declared its purpose as “serving and protecting Americans at every stage of life, beginning at conception”.
And the cancellation of the HHS contract came soon after 85 members of the House of Representatives to FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, declaring that the “practice of conducting research using the body parts of children whose lives have been violently ended by abortion is abhorrent”. This leaves little doubt as to the true motives underlying the audit.
The announcement from the HHS comes just a few years after a campaign by the anti-abortion-rights group the Center for Medical Progress to discredit the legitimacy of acquiring fetal tissues. In 2015, the group released controversial videos alleging research groups (including the Advanced Bioscience Resources) were paying for fetal tissues, and making it appear was selling them. into Planned Parenthood found no evidence to support the claim.
The latest move by the HHS shows how tangibly under threat the right to access abortion is in the US. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has demonstrated an anti-abortion stance, previously attempting to a detained immigrant from accessing an abortion, stating in his that “the Government has permissible interests in favoring fetal life, protecting the best interests of a minor, and refraining from facilitating abortion”. (The Health and Human Service supported his position, stating that “there is no constitutional right” to an abortion). Kavanaugh also caused controversy this month by referring to contraceptive pills as “”. There are rumblings that Roe v. Wade – which enshrined the right to abortion – may well be .
This is much more than an audit on procurement requirements, laws and regulations: this is a deeply ideological gambit, opening the door for a further debate on women’s agency and bodily autonomy.
