House rejects policy on fetal-tissue study

WASHINGTON -- The House voted Thursday to block the White House's move to end human fetal-tissue research by government scientists, a direct challenge to President Donald Trump's administration that will be tested in the Republican-led Senate.

Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., co-chairman of the House Progressives Caucus, sponsored the amendment to a sweeping spending bill. The amendment targets Trump's policy requiring federally funded research using fetal tissue from elective abortions to undergo separate screenings by an ethics advisory board. Pocan's measure restricted funding to set up such panels.

The amendment passed 225-193, largely along party lines with all Republicans and three anti-abortion Democrats -- Daniel Lipinski of Illinois, Ben McAdams of Utah and Collin Peterson of Minnesota -- voting against it.

"I get it. You've got to make your base happy, especially in the era of Donald Trump," Pocan said during House debate. "But the bottom line is, you are hurting your constituents by trying to place politics over medical science. That's just a really bad idea."

The president reportedly had his political base in mind when he made the decision June 5 to restrict federal funding for fetal-tissue research, ignoring pushback from health and science aides in the administration who argued the importance of such research, The Washington Post reported.

"The administration's decision to forgo to develop treatments, cures for diseases, Alzheimer's, ALS, Parkinson's -- this is once again putting personal ideology ahead of public health," Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said on the House floor.

Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., spoke on behalf of GOP dissent to the amendment, challenging that even if some research "might benefit from fetal tissue" that doesn't mean the ethics shouldn't be considered.

"How can we stand in good conscience and say we're going to take ... one of the most controversial areas of research and wall it off and say the federal government can't consider ethics?" Harris said.

The International Society for Stem Cell Research, a coalition of universities and patient advocacy groups, sent a letter Tuesday to Pocan and the other nine Democratic sponsors of the amendment.

"The existing legal and ethical frameworks for fetal tissue research provide rigorous and appropriate oversight, ensuring that the tissue is obtained legally and with donor consent," they wrote.

It remains uncertain whether the provision will survive as the Senate considers its version of the spending bill and lawmakers negotiate overall budget legislation ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline.

A Section on 06/14/2019

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