Majority of NIH's $27M in funding for fetal tissue studies coming from Fauci's institute: study

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FIRST ON FOX: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding $27 million in studies marked for use of fetal tissue, according to a new analysis.

The White Coat Waste Project (WCW), which opposes animal experimentation, looked through NIH data to uncover the scope of funding, which includes support for things like transplanting fetal lungs, liver and thymus into mice. 

The majority of the reported funding – 79.6% – comes from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is run by White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci. Overall, NIH expects to spend $88 million on this type of research in fiscal year (FY) 22.

Mice used for fetal tissue research are kept in the vivarium mice room at the Biomedical Sciences Research Building on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles Nov. 15, 2019. (Philip Cheung for The Washington Post)

"Anthony Fauci’s spending on grotesque and wasteful animal experiments is out of control," Christine McPherson, Development Manager of WCW, said in a statement to Fox News Digital Thursday. 

"A majority of Republican and Democrat taxpayers don’t want to be forced to pay university white coats tens of millions of dollars each year to implant fingers, scalps, eyes and other parts from aborted human fetuses into monkeys and mice for nightmarish experiments."

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NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did not respond to Fox News' requests for comment.

Fauci's institute has come under fire for research surrounding the coronavirus, among other things. More recently, WCW uncovered an experiment in which dogs were injected with cocaine. Other experiments involving humanized mice have surfaced. 

One study involved humanizing mice through "reconstitution with human fetal liver (17 to 22 weeks of gestational age)." So far, that project has received funding through multiple NIAID grants, including one with more than $20 million between 2014-2018. 

Another study, funded by the National Eye Institute, entailed studying fetal eye cells. That study says the eye cells were obtained from Advanced Biosciences Resources, which has come under fire for its connections to Planned Parenthood. Fetal lungs were also incorporated as part of federally funded research with the University of Wyoming and University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

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Exhibit from NIH-funded study utilizing fetal lungs. Figure A shows implanted lung tissue. (National Center for Biotechnology Information/National Library of Medicine)

An exhibit in the UNC study shows a specimen with implanted lung tissue. That study bore resemblance to one by Ganogen, a biotech company previously subpoenaed by a House of Representatives panel. Besides attempting to grow fetal kidneys, Ganogen also experimented with placing fetal hearts in lab rats and posted a video of a fetal heart beating inside of a rodent. That video has since been removed, but traces of it remain on an Internet archive.

The conservative watchdog Judicial Watch previously released documents showing that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sought "fresh" fetal organs from ABR. In one email, the FDA's Dr. Kristina Howard tells ABR's procurement manager Perrin Larton that her company "should be prepaid for $12K of tissue purchases."

Exhibit from NIH-funded study utilizing fetal lungs, liver and thymus. (National Library of Medicine)

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In another, Howard asks Larton about the sex of a fetus whose organ was extracted. Larton responds that "[t]he techs were not able to identify gender. We only check external genitalia and if it’s not there … due to the nature of the termination procedure … we have no way of telling." 

The issue will likely continue to gain political attention as legislators learn more about various research projects, including those involving human-animal hybrids. Last year, the Senate rejected an amendment geared toward criminalizing participation in research that created certain chimeras, or human-animal hybrids, in expectation that the federal government could lift a moratorium on funding for those projects.

"Dr. Fauci’s funding of research using aborted fetal tissue is disgusting and indefensible," said Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich. "My Safe RESEARCH Act would ensure that scientists can continue important research so long as they’re not using fetal tissue from abortions."

McClain's Safe RESEARCH Act is designed to restrict research to fetal tissue obtained from either a stillbirth or ectopic pregnancy.

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Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., poses for a portrait outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Dec. 3, 2020. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

The University of Pittsburgh has also been suspected of utilizing trafficked or illegally obtained tissue for its biospecimen core, which it previously poised itself as a potential "pipeline" for organs. The university has denied wrongdoing, and a recent investigation said it complied with federal and state laws. Regardless, Republican legislators are still looking for answers, suggesting that the recent investigation was woefully inadequate.

Last year, Pennsylvania's state legislature held a hearing in which members discussed an experiment involving grafting fetal scalps, containing "full-thickness human skin," onto rodents. That particular project utilized tissue from the university's human tissue bank. It was also supported by grants from Fauci's NIAID. While it's unclear exactly how much federal money was spent on that project, it was funded through two large grants — one $1,498,642 and one $430,270.

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Federal law prohibits the sale or trafficking of fetal tissue, although accusations of wrongdoing have swirled around abortion providers in recent years. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House Chief Medical Advisor and Director of the NIAID, gives an opening statement during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing to examine the federal response to COVID-19 and new emerging variants Jan. 11, 2022 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (GREG NASH/POOL/AFP)

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In 2018, HHS terminated ABR’s contract with the FDA and initiated a "comprehensive review of all research involving fetal tissue to ensure consistency with statutes and regulations governing such research."