NYT Editorial March
7, 2016 (A 20)
With its hidden-camera videos that took
aim at Planned Parenthood, the Center for Medical Progress tried to stir up
opposition to abortion rights by concocting a controversy over fetal tissue
research. Now Republicans in the House are doing much the same thing.
Initially convened in response to the
videos, the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, a part of the House
Energy and Commerce Committee, pledges to “get the facts about medical
practices of abortion service providers and the business practices of the
procurement organizations who sell baby body parts.”
Its first hearing last Wednesday was a
showcase for fallacious attacks on fetal tissue research. In her opening statement, Representative Marsha
Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican who heads the panel, talked about the
Tuskegee syphilis experiment and the forced sterilization of people with
intellectual disabilities as a prelude to discussing fetal tissue research. She
went on to claim that the Center for Medical Progress’s videos showed
“something very troubling is going on related to fetal tissue and research,”
even though multiple investigations of Planned Parenthood have found no evidence of
wrongdoing.
The panel, dominated by Republicans,
decided to issue subpoenas requesting the names of medical researchers who work
with fetal tissue and employees at a clinic that provides abortions. That
tactic could put clinic workers, who routinely face harassment and threats, at
greater risk by making their names public as part of a congressional
investigation.
As Representative Jan Schakowsky, the
ranking Democrat on the panel, put it, “Linking individuals’ names to an
investigation that the Republicans describe as examining the ‘harvesting of
baby body parts’ and the ‘horrific practices’ of abortion providers puts people
in danger.”
Some witnesses called by the
Republicans questioned the research value of fetal tissue or said it could be
replaced by tissue from other sources. But many medical experts say fetal
tissue research is a necessary part of the search for treatments for
Parkinson’s, diabetes and other conditions. At the hearing, Lawrence Goldstein,
the director of the stem cell program at the University of California, San
Diego, said that stopping fetal tissue research would slow the search for a
vaccine for the Zika virus.
Fetal tissue has already been used to produce vaccines for diseases like polio
and rubella, and a panel convened by President Ronald Reagan found
fetal tissue donation and research to be ethically acceptable.
The congressional panel’s efforts will
not be limited to blocking fetal tissue research, which is bad enough.
According to its website, it is empowered to study federal
funding for abortion providers, late-term abortion practices and “any changes
in law or regulation necessary as a result of any other findings made.”
Wednesday’s hearing showed that
limiting or ending access to legal abortion services is part of the agenda. One
witness said that women who have had abortions “forfeit the moral standing
needed” to decide what should happen to the fetal tissue. One panel member,
Representative Diane Black, Republican of Tennessee, bizarrely asked, “Have we
reached a point in our society where there effectively is an Amazon.com for
human parts, including entire babies?” — a comment that has no basis in
reality.
Since the panel’s
goals are so broad, its future direction is unclear. What is clear is that by
pursuing their baseless investigation into “baby body parts,” Republicans are
continuing the campaign against fetal tissue research and reproductive rights
that the Center for Medical Progress began.
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