Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, a staunch opponent of abortion, made at least $83,000 serving on the board of directors of Merck & Co. at a time when the pharmaceutical company was producing vaccines using fetal stem cell lines derived from aborted fetuses, according to corporate documents reviewed by Al Jazeera America. The program “Inside Story” with Ray Suarez also obtained documents indicating that during Fiorina’s tenure on the board, anti-abortion groups had asked Merck to stop producing such vaccines, and that the company had refused.

Fiorina has been openly supportive of vaccines derived from fetal stem cells at least since her California Senate run in 2010. According to the Los Angeles Times, Fiorina clarified that, “It is when embryos are produced for the purposes of destruction, for the purposes of stem cell research that I have a great deal of difficulty.”

She served on Merck’s board from April of 1999 through December of 2000, according to Merck’s SEC filings from the time.

The Fiorina campaign did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment. Merck confirmed Fiorina’s tenure on the board, but said it does not retain the relevant compensation records from that time.

In addition to the $83,000 Fiorina received over her two years on the board, the company’s SEC filings indicate she was to receive an additional $1,200 for each board meeting she attended.

Fiorina’s tough anti-abortion stance briefly sent her soaring in the polls, after a Republican candidates’ debate in which she dared President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to watch what she said was a video in which Planned Parenthood medical personnel harvested tissue from an aborted fetus, the heart of which was still beating.