The newly appointed director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, could bring an end to one of the more demonic practices of the federal government – funding scientific research that employs organs and tissues from aborted human fetuses.
This gruesome line of research has been going on for decades. Several organizations have done much to expose it including, among others, Live Action, the Center for Medical Progress, and Judicial Watch – although many other fine groups and individuals have done yeoman’s work in bringing this outrageous business to light.
Brian Simboli, PhD, an independent researcher heavily involved in the pro-life movement, has done extensive work investigating baby parts procurement, particularly surrounding the activities at the University of Pittsburgh (aka, Pitt), which is funded in part by NIH. He has been investigating Pitt, and its associated Medical Center (UPMC) and UPMC Magee-Women’s Hospital for years over their questionable activities involving aborted fetal tissue research.
In 2022, Republican members of both the Senate and the House demanded that the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General investigate allegations that Pitt researchers had “illegally altered abortion procedures solely for the purpose of obtaining fetal tissue, or derived fetal tissue by organ or tissue harvesting from aborted babies who were born alive and then killed,” according to a statement put out by Senator James Lankford.
In his Senate confirmation hearings, Dr. Bhattacharya noted that many people had ethical objections to the use of fetal tissue in the development of medical treatments, like vaccines. He observed, “In public health, we need to make sure the products of the science are ethically acceptable to everybody. And so having alternatives that are not ethically conflicted to fetal stem cell lines is not just an ethical issue but is a public health issue.”
In that portion of his testimony, Dr. Bhattacharya was addressing the issue specifically of the use of fetal stem cell lines to develop vaccines.
But the use of aborted baby parts that has been funded by the federal government is far more grotesque than even the use of fetal stem cell lines for vaccine development suggests.
This author has investigated for years the Food and Drug Administration funding of the creation of so-called “humanized mice,” resulting in multiple stories published by Judicial Watch revealing conversations between private scientists and government officials discussing, for example, how the lab obtained “fresh and never frozen” tissues from human babies that were then implanted into mice, in order for the mice to develop “humanized” immune systems for use in scientific research.
Organs from aborted babies that were particularly sought after, according to the records obtained by Judicial Watch, which included billing documents, were livers and thymus glands, with the company Advanced Bioscience Resources charging NIH’s Rocky Mountain Laboratory typically $750 per pair.
Federal law prohibits human fetal tissue from being transferred for profit. A criminal referral was made by Senator Chuck Grassley to the FBI in 2016, calling for the investigation of several Planned Parenthood affiliates and various companies, such as Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR, which was the subject of my investigation cited above), StemExpress LLC and the now-defunct Novogenix Laboratories, LLC in order to determine whether federal laws had been violated related to fetal tissue trafficking.
The impetus for Senator Grassley’s criminal referrals was an undercover investigation done by pro-life activist and journalist, David Daleiden, and his colleague, Sandra Merritt, of the Center for Medical Progress, who captured on undercover video Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of baby parts. The comments made in one video by Dr. Mary Gatter, the Medical Directors’ Council President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, were appalling. In negotiating for the sale of baby parts with Daleiden and Merritt, who were posing as buyers of the tissues, Dr. Gatter joked, “I want a Lamborghini.” She would later go on to ask, “What kind of volume do you need and what gestational ages?”
As the journalists report, Dr. Gatter oversaw the start of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles’ contract with Novogenix Laboratories.
As a result of these videos, undercover operatives Daleiden and Merritt were prosecuted by the State of California for unlawful recording in a years-long criminal case against the pair, to which they pled “no contest” to one misdemeanor charge last January, which is eventually to be expunged, per the terms of their plea agreement. The state of California made its point. If you dare to expose this sort of dirty laundry again, we will bring litigation hell, and all its attendant costs, down on your head.
Dr. Simboli and I co-authored, along with my Judicial Watch colleague, attorney Meredith DiLiberto, a recent article in LifeNews calling on Dr. Bhattacharya to fully investigate the practices occurring at the University of Pittsburgh. I further call upon him to end the use of aborted human babies in all medical research.
William F. Marshall has been an intelligence analyst and investigator in the government, private, and non-profit sectors for 38 years. He is a senior investigator for Judicial Watch, Inc., and has been a contributor to Townhall, American Thinker, Epoch Times, The Federalist, American Greatness, and other publications. His work has been featured on CBS News 48 Hours and NBC News Dateline. (The views expressed are the author’s alone, and not necessarily those of Judicial Watch.)
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