SILVER SPRING, Maryland, August 7, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-life leaders are outraged over revelations that the federal government continues to use human tissue from abortions in medical experiments, according to documents highlighted by CNS News.

A June 13, 2018 notice from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announces that the agency has awarded a $15,900 contract to Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc. (ABR), a San Francisco Bay fetal tissue procurement firm, for the purpose of acquiring “Tissue for Humanized Mice.” The contract runs from July 15, 2018 to July 14, 2019.

This is one of eight contracts the FDA has signed with ABR since 2012, according to the U.S. General Services Administration, all for requirements such as “Humanized Mice,” “Human Fetal Tissue,” “Tissue Procurement for Humanized Mice,” or “Human Tissue.” The revelation is particularly concerning in light of ABR’s work with Planned Parenthood in the abortion giant’s 2015 scandal over selling aborted baby parts.

“Fresh human tissues are required for implantation into severely immune-compromised mice to create chimeric animals that have a human immune system,” the latest notice explains. “This human immune system allows us to test biological drug products for safety and efficacy. This is necessary because these drug products do not bind non-human species drug targets.”

Experiments of this nature entail implanting human thymus and liver tissue and injecting stem cells from a human liver into the mouse, according to a 2017 article published in the Therapeutic Innovation & Regulatory Science, resulting in a “mouse with a ‘humanized’ immune system.”

“Fetal tissue used in research is obtained from elective abortions,” the Congressional Research Service said in 2015, explaining that tissue from miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies is rarely used because the “timing or recognition of” such situations often makes the tissue “not suitable for research purposes.”

“[By] issuing a contract to acquire human fetal tissue to use in making mice with human immune systems, the FDA is using federal tax dollars to create a demand for human body parts that must be taken from babies who are aborted,” CNS News’ Terence Jeffrey explained. “Because it would not be able to create its ‘humanized mice’ without fresh tissue taken from aborted babies, the FDA also has an interest in the continuation of legalized abortions at a stage in fetal development when the tissue [...] can be retrieved.”

CNS News posed twenty questions to the FDA about the contract, including questions about what level of knowledge the FDA will have about specific abortions, the number and gestational ages of the babies to be aborted, the abortion methods to be used, and whether any of the abortions will take place at Planned Parenthood facilities.

Instead of providing specific answers, the FDA gave CNS News a statement promising that the agency is “committed to ensuring that its research is conducted responsibly, conforms with all legal requirements, and meets the highest ethical standards,” that it obtains the tissue “from a non-profit Tissue Procurement Organization (TPO) that have provided assurances that they are in compliance with all applicable legal requirements,” and that it “has in place systems” to ensure all tissue-related research “is in compliance with applicable federal, state and local regulations and guidelines.”

“FDA is not involved in the TPO’s sourcing of the tissue,” the statement stressed. Yet numerous pro-life leaders say the Trump administration should revoke the contract.

“It is unconscionable that the United States government is still paying top-dollar in taxpayer money for the freshest, most high-quality dismembered baby hearts, lungs, livers, and brains,” said the Center for Medical Progress, the organization that first exposed Planned Parenthood’s organ trafficking. “HHS must provide full transparency and immediately terminate any and all such contracts, and the U.S. Department of Justice needs to do their job and hold ABR, Planned Parenthood, and those like them accountable to the law.”

Calling it “outrageous that the FDA would aid in the trafficking of aborted baby parts and fetal tissue” and warning that it “not only fosters government-sponsored participation in unethical research but continues use of outdated scientific methods,” Charlotte Lozier Institute Vice President and Research Director Dr. David Prentice said in a statement to LifeSiteNews that the “government should lead in ethics and in science, and should rescind any contracts for or use of aborted fetal tissue.”

“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,” Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser declared. “We call on Congress to pass the Roby Amendment to stop taxpayer funding of these repugnant practices and act swiftly to ban them altogether.”

"Every part of this transaction is a tragedy. A woman is driven to abort her baby, too often by coercion or abandonment, and there in the shadows is a government contractor waiting to tear apart the baby's body to deliver pieces in exchange for payment,” Family Research Council Senior Fellow for Legal Studies Cathy Ruse agreed. “The FDA owes the American people an explanation as to how such a contract could have been approved. Americans demand to have a more ethical government--one that does not traffic in the remains of human beings.”

President Donald Trump has actively pursued pro-life policies during his first two years in office, though his signature of March’s $1.3 trillion spending omnibus that continued to fund Planned Parenthood was a disappointment to many pro-lifers. Last December, the Trump Justice Department (DOJ) requested documents from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation of Planned Parenthood, which many took to mean the administration was finally investigating the baby parts scandal. The DOJ has not updated the public on the investigation since then, however.