President Donald J. Trump continued his pro-life presidency Tuesday, canceling a contract that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had in place to purchase aborted fetal tissue for research purchases.
“After a recent review of a contract between Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc. and the Food and Drug Administration to provide human fetal tissue to develop testing protocols, HHS was not sufficiently assured that the contract included the appropriate protections applicable to fetal tissue research or met all other procurement requirements,” said a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) statement.
Advanced Biomedical Services was selling the fetal tissue to the FDA, who as experimenting on “humanized mice,” allowing mice to have a functioning immune system, according to a report.
HHS also vowed to review the statutes under which fetal tissue can be procured for research purposes.
“In addition, HHS has initiated a comprehensive review of all research involving fetal tissue to ensure consistency with statutes and regulations governing such research, and to ensure the adequacy of procedures and oversight of this research in light of the serious regulatory, moral, and ethical considerations involved,” the statement said.
The organization is also reviewing whether there is an alternative to human fetal tissue that could be used for such research.
“Finally, HHS is continuing to review whether adequate alternatives exist to the use of human fetal tissue in HHS funded research and will ensure that efforts to develop such alternatives are funded and accelerated.”