Pro-life leaders recently encouraged President Donald Trump to reject pressure from abortion activists to fund unethical research using aborted baby body parts during the coronavirus crisis.
More than 50 pro-life leaders and 150 federal lawmakers across the country sent letters to the Trump administration urging it to protect human lives, both born and unborn, during the pandemic.
Abortion activists have been trying to take advantage of the crisis by pushing for abortion funding in government spending bills, the de-regulation of abortion drugs, and research using aborted baby body parts. In March, the Washington Post highlighted complaints from anonymous scientists claiming research on the coronavirus is being hindered by new restrictions from the Trump administration on the use of aborted baby body parts in taxpayer-funded research.
National Review reports pro-life lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate both sent letters to the Trump administration telling leaders to stand firm in their commitment to defund the unethical research.
“In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, complaints against your decision to halt funding of aborted fetal tissue research has reached a crescendo,” the House letter states. “These critical litanies, however, repeat false claims and narratives which for many years have touted the utility of aborted fetal tissue in research …”
Christian Headlines reports 131 congressmen and congresswomen signed the letter. They noted that there are ethical alternatives available to researchers that do not involve destroying human lives.
“… holding the line ethically gives us the ability to put resources toward better, more promising science that is already showing potential against the COVID-19 coronavirus,” they stated.
Follow LifeNews.com on Instagram for pro-life pictures and videos.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, said abortion activists are ignoring the wide variety of ethical options available to scientists, including pluripotent stem cells and tissue from placentas, umbilical cords and amniotic fluid. In 2018, the Trump administration created a $20 million grant to invest in these ethical research alternatives.
Earlier this spring, Dannenfelser joined more than 50 other pro-life leaders in encouraging the Republican administration to stay focused on saving lives both from the coronavirus and abortions.
“In acts of manifest fear-mongering and self-interest, [the abortion industry is] exploiting the anxiety of women and couples by continuing to promote abortion in communities across the country,” the pro-life leaders wrote in a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar. “At a time when hospitals are overloaded, the abortion industry is putting women at risk of incomplete abortion, hemorrhage, and infection.”
They asked Trump administration leaders to ensure emergency response funds do not go to the abortion industry and to urge abortion facilities to join healthcare providers in donating their personal protective equipment and other resources to the coronavirus response. They also asked leaders to continue working to stop illegal mail-order abortion drug distribution and to prevent the expansion of webcam abortions.
Recently, the Charlotte Lozier Institute noted that at least 60 potential treatments for the virus are being investigated right now using materials that do not come from aborted babies.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also assured Americans that the Trump administration “has activated a whole-of-government, whole-of-America approach to prepare for and respond to COVID-19.” HHS said these actions include “kick-starting the development of vaccines and therapeutics through every possible avenue.”
