Recent reports from the NIH suggest that the university may have been endangering women (and violating federal law) by altering abortion procedures for the purpose of obtaining more intact fetal tissue. Even more disturbingly the same reports suggest that researchers may have been harvesting organs from babies capable of surviving outside of their mothers' wombs. All the while, Pitt's research received approximately $1.5 million in taxpayer funding from the NIH.
“Exploiting the body parts of aborted children for research purposes is repulsive and should stop, regardless of the outcome hoped for by researchers,” the letter reads. “Research using abortive fetal tissue is unethical, wrong, and has also been proven ineffective. Despite being used in clinical research since the 1920s, fetal tissue has not produced a single clinical treatment.”
The letter was led by Senators James Lankford (R-OK), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Steve Daines (R-MT) along with Reps. Lisa McClain (R-MI) and Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO).
Legislators who co-signed the letter include Illinois Reps. Rodney Davis (R) and Mike Bost (R).
