Amid a global race to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus, pro-life advocates are warning of the use of the cells of aborted babies by researchers.
“I will not kill children to live,” said Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, reported LifeSiteNews.
In a tweet, he expressed sadness over the fact that “even with Covid-19 we are still debating the use of aborted fetal tissue for medical research.”
The pro-life group Children of God for Life, which promotes ethical vaccines, found that several of the top COVID-19 vaccine projects are using aborted fetal cells, LifeSiteNews said.
Debi Vinnedge, the group’s executive director, said her heart sank when she discovered that Spike protein, which is part of a vaccine being developed by Moderna, was produced using aborted fetal cells.
Time magazine reports industrial powerhouses such as Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi and Glaxo SmithKline are working on a vaccine but may not have one ready until next year.
Meanwhile, Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida have joined with Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and 30 other Senate Republicans to urge President Trump to maintain pro-life protections in new research, Florida Daily reported.
In a letter to the president, they thank him for his defense of the sanctity of life, including fetal tissue and cells.
“In particular, we thank you for last year’s decision to stop taxpayer funding in federal laboratories of the horrific practice of using aborted baby body parts for experiments,” they write.
But they note that some advocate the use of fetal tissue for COVID-19 vaccine research.
“The facts show that aborted fetal tissue from ongoing abortions has never been used in the production of a single vaccine, and most vaccines today use more efficient, modern cell lines and production techniques,” they argue.
“Notably, the few attempted transplants of aborted fetal tissue have made most patients worse, not better. Moreover, it is unknown whether mice with a human immune system and lungs made from aborted fetal tissue can even be used successfully to test treatments against the coronavirus,” they explained, calling those practices “unethical.”
“We urge you to stand strong in rejecting these appeals for taxpayer dollars to be used for the practice of using aborted babies in experiments. Your decision to stop funding for this research and to redirect funds toward ethical, successful alternatives should be maintained,” they said.
The newssite Vox complained the Trump policy “appears to be standing in the way of at least one scientist.”
Kim Hasenkrug of the National Institutes of Health’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana wants to run tests in mice with “humanized” lungs that are modified with fetal tissue from abortions.
But under Trump, the HHS last summer issued a directive banning fetal tissue research for government employees.
The sale of unborn-baby body parts was spotlighted by a hidden-camera probe by the Center for Medical Progress that found abortionists negotiating with middlemen for higher pay for the parts.
Federal law prohibits profiting from the body parts.
LifeSiteNews reported a vaccine developer owned by Johnson & Johnson is using technology derived from an aborted baby’s retinal tissue.
Children of God for Life said that in most seasonal flu vaccines, the need to produce large quantities of vaccine has been a problem. Pharmaceutical companies used chicken eggs to cultivate their viruses. It takes several months and millions of eggs to produce the vaccines, so many companies have turned to other cell lines to speed up production.
Life Petitions has launched an online campaign urging President Trump to prevent the use of fetal tissue in COVID-19 vaccines.
It was collecting thousands of signatures per day.
The petition argues scientists in Japan for years have ethically produced reliable vaccines from animal cell lines.
