Former White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment when senators questioned him about taxpayer-funded research involving tissue from aborted babies.
Fauci appeared this summer before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, where lawmakers questioned him about several controversies from his tenure as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment rights in response to the committee’s questions.
Among the issues raised was NIAID’s funding of research using human fetal tissue. Under Fauci’s leadership, the agency funded nearly 80% of fetal-tissue experimentation conducted through the National Institutes of Health, involving tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.
Sen. Joni Ernst specifically questioned Fauci about controversial experiments involving tissue obtained from late-term aborted babies. These included research in which fetal scalp tissue was transplanted onto laboratory rodents, as well as experiments involving fetal organs and other body parts.
The controversy surrounding federal fetal-tissue research has persisted for years, particularly over how tissue is obtained and whether abortion providers or intermediaries financially benefit from supplying it.
The Trump administration has since moved to restrict federal funding for research involving tissue from elective abortions, reversing policies that allowed such experiments to continue.
For pro-life advocates, the latest congressional scrutiny has renewed a fundamental question: why were American taxpayers funding experiments using the remains of aborted children in the first place?
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