The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) pumped at least $2.7 million into a University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) project that that sought to create “a tissue bank” from organs of aborted foetuses, a watchdog has revealed. The HHS has not commented on the report yet.
The conservative group Judicial Watch along with the anti-abortion organisation Center for Medical Progress (CMP) claimed they had obtained documents proving that the project used the foetuses ranging from six to 42 weeks’ gestation.
According to the documents, some of the aborted babies were apparently alive moments before their organs were harvested for a project known as the GenitoUrinary Development Molecular Anatomy Project, or GUDMAP.
Judicial Watch cited Pitt as telling the HHS in 2015 that it had been "collecting fetal tissue for over 10 years [...]”, which includes “liver, heart, gonads, legs, brain, genitourinary tissues including kidneys, ureters and bladders”.
David Seldin, Pitt’s assistant vice chancellor for news, told Fox News that the project was funded by the HHS’ National Institutes of Health (NIH) and that it stipulated ensuring “appropriate inclusion of women and minorities”.
According to him, one of the project’s goals was “to support researchers looking for treatments and cures for kidney disease”.
CMP founder and President David Daleiden has meanwhile launched quick legal action, and slammed the University of Pittsburgh in a statement earlier this week.
“The NIH grant application for just one of Pitt’s numerous experiments with aborted infants reads like an episode of American Horror Story. Law enforcement and public officials should act immediately to bring the next Kermit Gosnell to justice under the law”, Daleiden underscored.
He was referring to an American former physician who was convicted of murdering seven infants and one woman during attempted abortion procedures. In May 2013, 80-year-old Kermit Gosnell was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.