U.S. bishops have applauded the Trump Administration’s move to withhold federal funds from research that involves tissue obtained from the bodies of aborted infants.
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, issued a statement late last week praising the release of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Human Fetal Tissue Research Ethics Advisory Board report, which recommends that federal funding be refused for 13 out of 14 research proposals involving the use of fetal tissue.
“We applaud the Administration for moving NIH in a direction that shows greater consideration for medical ethics in research, and greater respect for innocent human life,” the statement reads.
“It is neither ethical nor necessary to further violate the bodies of aborted babies by commodifying them for use in medical research,” Archbishop Naumann added. “The victims of abortion deserve the same respect as every other human person.”
“We are grateful that the Administration is following through on its commitment to end federal funding of research using aborted fetal tissue,” he concluded.
The statement comes in the midst of heated debate on abortion following the Democratic National Convention, which nominated Joe Biden — a Catholic who supports abortion — as its candidate for the presidency.
Over the years Biden’s position on abortion has grown more radical and he currently supports the repeal of the Hyde and Helms amendments, which ban taxpayer funding of abortion, while pushing for the codification of the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade case into law.
Biden also named as his Vice-Presidential running mate a woman known both for her virulent pro-abortion stance and her anti-Catholic animus.
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