Scientific study to advance the well-being of humans is good – but not when it depends on the destruction of others.

On Aug. 7, CNSNews.com, a division of the MRC, revealed that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is obtaining “fresh” aborted baby parts in the name of scientific research – or to create mice with human immune systems. But Americans wouldn’t know that by watching the network news shows that evening.

ABC, CBS, and NBC didn’t mention the story once during their evening news shows Aug. 7. But all three reported on a the body parts of a toddler found in a New Mexico compound.

The news broke after the FDA awarded a $15,900 year-long contract to Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR), which harvests aborted baby parts, on July 25. The non-profit has worked closely with Planned Parenthood in the past, as captured on camera by the Center for Medical Progress.

According to Planned Parenthood’s most recently published annual report, the organization performed 321,384 abortions and received $543.7 million in “government health services, reimbursements & grants” for the year 2016-2017.

Tax dollars also play into this story.

“[B]y issuing a contract to acquire human fetal tissue to use in making mice with human immune systems,” CNSNews.com reported, “the FDA is using federal tax dollars to create a demand for human body parts that must be taken from babies who are aborted.”

Click here to sign up for pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com

Pro-Life Reaction

Although the networks remained silent, the pro-life movement, which argues for the inherent dignity and worth of both the born and unborn, did not. Many released statements to the press, located below.

Live Action Founder and President Lila Rose:

“The FDA’s purchasing of fetal tissue from aborted babies is immoral and horrific, violating human dignity and implicating the American taxpayer in the gruesome trade of human body parts. By issuing a contract to acquire human fetal tissue, the FDA is using American tax dollars to pay for human body parts that can only be acquired from aborted babies. These children deserved care and protection, but instead were violently stripped of their fundamental rights and are now being sold piecemeal. The company that the FDA is doing business with, Advanced Bio Resources (ABR), is currently under federal investigation for colluding with Planned Parenthood to sell aborted baby body parts for profit. We call on the FDA to terminate its contract with ABR immediately and cease the experimentation on the bodies of aborted children.”

President March for Life Action President Tom McClusky:

“After an undercover investigation and Congressional investigation exposed the horrors of an industry that harvests and sells baby body parts, there is no excuse for anyone, much less the taxpayer funded federal government to enter into contracts that prop up this gruesome practice. Such contracts should be immediately terminated and the baby body parts trafficking industry shut down.”

Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser:

“The use of aborted babies’ body parts for gratuitous, unethical experiments is simply horrifying. Investigations by brave citizen journalists and our allies in Congress have exposed the brutal reality that ‘fresh tissue’ is obtained by torturing unborn children to death in late-term abortions. Under no circumstances should the U.S. government be contracting with baby parts dealers like ABR – who have partnered with abortion giant Planned Parenthood – or taxpayers be forced to fund such atrocities. We call on Congress to pass the Roby Amendment to stop taxpayer funding of these repugnant practices and act swiftly to ban them altogether.”

Charlotte Lozier Institute Vice President and Research Director Dr. David Prentice:

“It is outrageous that the FDA would aid in the trafficking of aborted baby parts and fetal tissue. This not only fosters government-sponsored participation in unethical research but continues use of outdated scientific methods. Humanized mice can and have been made, for years, using ethical cell sources, including umbilical cord blood and peripheral blood stem cells. High-quality, modern scientific research has no need for unethical, tainted practices and grisly sources. Our government should lead in ethics and in science, and should rescind any contracts for or use of aborted fetal tissue.”

Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins:

“Students for Life condemns the wanton disregard for human life that the FDA is displaying. The FDA was established to protect Americans not exploit them. This is just another reason why Planned Parenthood and all organizations engaged in the exploitation of aborted children for profit must be investigated and charged with trafficking crimes. Until organizations like Planned Parenthood and their business partners are held to account for their crimes exposed with the Center for Medical Progress investigations, we can expect others to continue to act in this inhumane fashion.”

Editor’s Note: MRC research analyst Nicholas Fondacaro contributed to this report.

Methodology: MRC watched the evening news shows from the three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) on August 7, 2018.

LifeNews Note: Katie Yoder writes for Newsbusters, where this originally appeared.