A series of contracts that began under the Obama-era Food and Drug Administration paid out almost $100,000 as part of efforts to obtain from a controversial vendor tissue from fetuses aborted in the first and second trimester for research into "humanized mice," documents discovered in June reveal.
The details of the contracts, obtained in a lawsuit by government watchdog group Judicial Watch, are likely to play a role in key decisions made by a fetal tissue ethics advisory board convened by the Trump administration, one which
The Washington Post said is "dominated by foes of abortion and fetal tissue research."
The 165 pages of documents, which relate to the government's deals with the nonprofit firm Advanced Bioscience Resources, reveal the program continued well into the Trump administration, although it was eventually terminated over concerns that it was not complying with federal law regarding the uses of fetal tissue.
In 2016, then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, referred ABR for criminal prosecution as part of an investigation into fetal tissue sales.
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