Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Administration To Audit All Federally Funded Research Using Fetal Tissue, Reopening Decades-Long Controversy
The Washington Post: Trump Administration Launches Review Of Government-Funded Fetal Tissue Research
The Trump administration has launched a review of all federally funded research that uses fetal tissue and has canceled one contract for such material, stepping into a decades-old controversy that has been a sidelight to the ideological war over abortion. Federal health officials dispatched a letter Monday ending a contract with a California-based nonprofit group targeted by social conservatives in Congress and a coalition of antiabortion and faith-based groups. In July, the Food and Drug Administration had agreed to pay the organization, Advanced Bioscience Resources, nearly $16,000 for fetal tissue that was to be implanted into mice for research into immune responses to drugs. (Goldstein, Cha and McGinley, 9/25)
Stat: Trump Administration Launches Review Of Scientific Research Involving Fetal Tissue
The announcement follows the release of a letter sent earlier this month by 45 anti-abortion leaders to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, expressing outrage about the Food and Drug Administration’s contract and urging him to end government funding for fetal tissue research. In 2017, the National Institutes of Health spent roughly $98 million on the research. “The use of fetal tissue is important or even necessary for some kinds of work,” said Alta Charo, a bioethics professor from the University of Wisconsin who has defended fetal tissue research before Congress. Charo noted that research using fetal tissue led to the development of key vaccines and is now crucial to research on understanding how exposure to Zika virus during pregnancy causes birth defects. (Thielking, 9/25)
The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Cancels Research Contract For Fetal Tissue
The action rekindles a longstanding and emotional debate over the use of fetal tissue in research. Conservative evangelical voters, who are among the GOP’s strongest supporters, strongly oppose the use of such tissue when it comes from abortions. Research groups, however, say the use of fetal tissue is vital to medical advances because it has qualities that adult tissue doesn’t have.The debate over abortion, they add, should be kept separate from the question of whether such tissue should be used. (Armour and Burton, 9/25)
The Hill: Trump Administration Terminates Contract With Fetal Tissue Firm After Opposition From Anti-Abortion Groups
The Food and Drug Administration, which is under HHS, contracted with Advanced Bioscience Resources in July to acquire fetal tissue to implant into mice for research purposes. Republicans on Capitol Hill criticized the decision in a letter to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, writing that "unborn children are not commodities to be bought and sold." "The practice of conducting research using the body parts of children whose lives have been violently ended by abortion is abhorrent," reads the Sept. 17 letter, signed by 85 House members. (Hellmann, 9/24)
In other news from the administration —
The New York Times: E.P.A. Places The Head Of Its Office Of Children’s Health On Leave
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday placed the head of its Office of Children’s Health Protection on administrative leave, in an unusual move that several observers said appeared to reflect an effort to minimize the role of the office. Dr. Ruth Etzel, a pediatrician and epidemiologist who has been a leader in children’s environmental health for 30 years, joined the E.P.A. in 2015, after having served as a senior officer for environmental health research at the World Health Organization. (Davenport and Rabin, 9/26)
