Report: Fetal tissue supplier hired by federal health agencies

A company mentioned as a fetal tissue supplier in recent Planned Parenthood sting videos reportedly does business with two federal health agencies.

According to a report in Politico, Advanced Bioscience Resources, a contracting research company, has made over $300,000 in transactions with the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration.

Both agencies reportedly had contracts with the firm since 2009, and have paid money for materials in order to conduct various types of research, including HIV and eye disease studies.

Politico reports it’s unclear if the firm got any tissue from abortions at Planned Parenthood, though the company was mentioned in one of the recent videos released by an anti-abortion group. Those videos show Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal tissue harvesting.

Officials reportedly said NIH has paid the ABR firm $257,000 since 2009 and $53,000 last year alone. The officials, however, didn’t explain how much of the money went toward fetal tissue and how much went to other supplies. The report added that some tissue came from 17- to 22-week-old fetuses. Multiple anti-abortion organizations want to prohibit most abortions after 20 weeks.

The FDA also paid the firm $73,000 in the same amount of time. Officials told Politico that much of that money was for certain liver and thymus tissue in order to test drug therapies.

The firm did not return Politico’s requests for comments.