Fetal tissue bill would hold up U of M research dollars

Legislators who oppose abortion want to withhold as much as $14 million from the University of Minnesota until it restricts its use of fetal tissue in research.

Instead of $15 million already budgeted for an array of medical research in 2017, the university would receive just $1 million next year under a proposal that would fund a new center overseeing fetal tissue research and ensuring that the U didn't procure tissue from elective abortions.

Once the center is running, the university could again seek $14 million per year for research, starting in 2018, said Rep. Abigail Whelan, the Anoka Republican who authored the proposal.

The proposal would "honor the moral values" of Minnesotans who support the university but oppose using tissue from aborted fetuses, Whelan said Tuesday at a hearing of the House Higher Education Policy and Finance Committee. "It does not eliminate any funding as long as the fetal tissue center is established and operational," she said.

U researchers have used fetal tissue from elective abortions for years with little public opposition; it has helped medical scientists explore the mechanisms of HIV, diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

But it resurfaced as a political issue last summer amid a national controversy over allegations that Planned Parenthood had sold aborted fetal tissue.

University leaders oppose Whelan's plan. Holding up $15 million slotted for recruiting researchers and studying addiction, aging, brain imaging and rural and Native American health disparities over the separate issue of fetal tissue would be a "dramatic, regressive step backward," U President Eric Kaler said.

Whelan argued that the new center could make the university a national leader in procuring alternative fetal tissue. "Just because something is difficult doesn't mean we shouldn't do it if it's the right thing to do," she said.

The national controversy last summer erupted over surreptitious videos in which Planned Parenthood officials in other states appeared to say they illegally received financial incentives for providing fetal tissue.

However, a Texas grand jury indicted the abortion opponents who produced the videos and found no fault with the clinic officials.

The issue lingered in Minnesota, partly because U representatives initially denied that any fetal tissue research took place on campus and later had to backtrack.

U leaders announced a set of reforms in January, including limiting procurement of aborted fetal tissue to out-of-state sources, increasing research oversight and ensuring that tissue remains are disposed of in a dignified manner.