The Troubling Link Between the Abortion and Pharmaceutical Industries

Advertisement

After the fact that Planned Parenthood was selling the remains of aborted babies through questionable “mutual donation” exchanges was initially brought to light, many within the movement to end abortion noticed a startling omission: nobody was holding the buyers accountable.

Whenever addressing any issue, good or bad, one must always ask, “qui bono?” In other words, who benefits from abortion and, therefore, has a major interest in keeping it legal?

The obvious answer to the question is, of course, abortion providers themselves. Offering pitifully few services that can’t be obtained cheaper elsewhere, there’s little doubt that Planned Parenthood would be forced shut its doors if abortion were outlawed tomorrow.

If you follow the money, however, especially in the case of the undercover videos revealing the obscene amount of money Planned Parenthood received in exchange for baby remains, you’ll come to the conclusion that someone else benefits from the abortion industry. Someone is paying these huge sums of money to obtain fetal organs and tissue.

That “someone” is the pharmaceutical industry, and until their dependency on the “byproducts of abortion” (it kills me to even phrase it that way) is shattered, we will never end the wholesale murder of children.

What does the pharmaceutical industry need aborted baby parts for? Their job is to develop lifesaving and life-preserving medicines and treatments, how can they possibly depend on mass murder to accomplish that?

The truth is, ironically, that many of those drugs and treatments, most especially vaccines, require human tissue for research, development, and production.

According to PBS:

University laboratories that buy such cells strongly defend their research, saying tissue that would otherwise be thrown out has played a vital role in lifesaving medical advances and holds great potential for further breakthroughs.

Fetal cells are considered ideal because they divide rapidly, adapt to new environments easily and are less susceptible to rejection than adult cells when transplanted.

“If researchers are unable to work with fetal tissue, there is a huge list of diseases for which researchers would move much more slowly, rather than quickly, to find their cause and how they can be cured,” Stanford University spokeswoman Lisa Lapin said in an email.

Looking particularly at vaccines—and treading lightly while doing so—we see the defense that the remains of only two aborted babies are used in vaccine production today, and they weren’t aborted for that purpose. However, this is not the entire truth.

These two precious children, whom we now know only by the names of the cell lines derived from their bodies, MRC-5 and WI-38, are not infinite resources of material for vaccine developers and manufacturers to work with. All cells have a finite lifespan and limited capacity to replicate before they eventually become unstable, and develop tumors, and need to be replaced. According to LifeNews, “attempts to immortalize these cells to extend their lifespan have likewise introduced problems with tumor formations, as in aborted fetal cell line PER C6, introduced into the US in 2001.”

The recent development of new cell lines from babies aborted in China caused an uproar, yet, once more, the mainstream pro-life movement refused to call out the pharmaceutical industry for their reinforcement and legitimization of the abortion industry.

According to LifeNews:

WALVAX  2 is taken from the lung tissue of a 3 month gestation female who was ultimately selected from among 9 aborted babies.  The scientists noted how they followed specific guidelines to mimic WI-38 and MRC-5 in selecting the aborted babies, ranging from 2-4 months gestation.  They further noted how they induced labor using a “water bag” abortion to shorten the delivery time and prevent the death of the fetus to ensure live intact organs which were immediately sent to the labs for cell preparation.

According to the studies published earlier this year in the NIH Pub Med, scientists noted that Walvax-2 cells replicated more rapidly than MRC-5 cells, attained greater population doubling and performed better or equal to the existing cell lines for culturing viruses.

Although Pharma advocates, ethicists, clergy, and the general public go along with the “only two babies” talking points and contend that the sacrifice of their lives has allowed the lives of countless children to be preserved, there are those who sharply disagree.

“This may be the biggest lie ever told to the American public and the world at large,” said Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director for Children of God for Life, a nonprofit dedicated to monitoring and educating the public on the use of aborted fetal materials in vaccines and other consumer products. “Not only have there been hundreds of abortions directly involved with vaccine research—specifically for that purpose where they altered abortion methods to obtain intact fetal organs, but we are now seeing more and more abortions for fetal research and new cell lines emerging for viral vaccine cultivation.”

“This is exactly what we have been saying for years,” said Vinnedge. “The pharmaceutical industry is not going to change their use of aborted fetal cells when they have tacit approval from our moral and medical leaders.” In fact, ever since fetal tissue research became legal, Vinnedge says, it has been “federally funded in the United States since 1993, when President Clinton signed it into law after intense lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry.”

Back in March, Vinnedge gave a presentation in Rome on the subject of fetal tissue use in medical research. Tracing the “sordid” practice all the way back to Margaret Sanger and the eugenics movement that birthed Planned Parent, Vinnedge explained why aborted babies are still being used in vaccine production today.

“There is a huge market worth billions of dollars due to the creation of patents, sale of the cell lines by companies that actually store and resell aborted fetal material,” Vinnedge said, noting that the biggest beneficiaries of abortion are “universities, biotech companies, the pharmaceutical industry and of course, Planned Parenthood who was caught in an undercover sting discussing how they ensure obtaining intact organs for sale.”

“Even the medical profession and our Catholic Church” is unaware, she continued, of the “horrific history of forced abortions involved in vaccine research and thousands more that led to the ultimate final production.”

“The truth needs to be made known about this sordid history and it is my goal to see that is done, and ultimately to put an end to this barbaric practice,” Vinnedge declared. “Until our physicians and clergy leaders unite worldwide demanding the moral alternatives, the pharmaceutical industry is not going to change. In fact, as history and the current trends are proving, it’s only going to get worse.”

Like the issue of whether abortive mothers should be subject to murder charges, this issue of fetal tissue research and use in medicine will separate the wheat from the chaff in the pro-life movement. We need to be prepared to deeply examine our beliefs, challenge them, and be willing to amend or change them in order to root out any latent sympathy we may have for the abortion industry.

Until we stand up and demand that pharmaceutical companies and researchers use ethical alternatives in their products, the holocaust against the unborn will never end.

If you appreciate the work we are doing to fight the leftist assault on our values, please consider a small donation to help us continue. Thank you so much!

Sponsor