COVID-19 VACCINE AND THE ABORTION ISSUE

by Marie McCullough

If you get a vaccine developed with cells descended from cells taken decades
ago from an aborted fetus, are you condoning abortion?
If you are concerned, confused, or just curious about the link between the
coronavirus vaccines and abortion, here is an overview.

A BIT OF VACCINE HISTORY

After a British doctor proved that infecting humans with the relatively mild cowpox
virus gave them immunity against deadly smallpox, industrialized “vaccine farms” were
set up to harvest cowpox virus from calves in the late 1800s.

Animals and animal products such as eggs remained standard in vaccine

research and development until the mid-20th century. Then scientists discovered a
safer, cheaper, more versatile way to study, make, and test most vaccines: Use human
cells grown in the lab.
Normally, human cells reproduce only a finite number of times and then die. But
some cells — from a cancer or a fetus — are inherently able to proliferate indefinitely.
Scientists have also learned how to genetically manipulate cells in culture to
“immortalize” them.
Immortalized fetal cells have yielded countless medical advances, particularly
immunizations.

In the United States in the mid-1960s, for example, about 31,000 pregnant
women infected with the rubella (German measles) virus suffered stillbirths, gave birth
to severely disabled infants, or decided to end their pregnancies. One aborted fetus was
sent to Philadelphia’s Wistar Institute, where vaccine pioneer Stanley Plotkin isolated
the rubella virus from kidney tissue. He developed the vaccine that is given today by
growing the virus in a cell line made from the lungs of an uninfected fetus aborted in
Sweden.

Remdesivir, the antibody treatment approved for COVID-19, was developed

using a cell line derived from kidney tissue of a fetus aborted in the 1970s.

The three COVID-19 vaccines now approved in the United States all used
historically derived fetal cell lines in parts of the development process. Pfizer and
Moderna used the cells only to test their vaccine, while J&J used the cells for research,
production, and testing, according to the antiabortion Lozier Institute.

THE ANTI-ABORTION STANCE ON VACCINES

Most, but not all, antiabortion ethicists and organizations say the horrors of the
pandemic outweigh their qualms about “abortion-tainted” vaccines.
However, most of them also advise that if there is a choice, get what they consider the
more “morally acceptable” shot.

COVID-19 VACCINES & FETAL CELL LINES

In various stages of vaccine development and manufacturing, some of the

COVID-19 vaccines used cells originally isolated from fetal tissue (often referred to as
fetal cells), some of which were originally derived from an aborted fetus.

Why are fetal cells used to make vaccines?

Historical fetal cell lines were derived in the 1960’s and 1970’s from two elective
abortions that have been used to create vaccines for diseases such as hepatitis A,
rubella, and rabies. Abortions from which fetal cells were obtained were elective and
were not done for the purpose of vaccine development. The fetal cell lines being used to
produce some of the potential COVID-19 vaccines are from two sources:

● HEK-293: A kidney cell line that was isolated from a fetus in 1973 (undisclosed origin,
from either a spontaneous miscarriage or an elective abortion)

● PER.C6: A retinal cell line that was isolated from an aborted fetus in 1985 Any
vaccine that relies on these historic cell lines will not require nor solicit new abortions.

To develop and manufacture some vaccines, pharmaceutical companies prefer

human cell lines over other cells because 1) viruses need cells to grow and the viruses
tend to grow better in cells from humans than animals (because they infect humans), 2)
fetal cells can be used longer than other cell types, and 3) fetal cells can be maintained
at low temperatures, allowing scientists to continuing using cell lines from decades ago.
While fetal cell lines may be used to develop or manufacture COVID-19 vaccines, the
vaccines themselves do not contain any aborted fetal cells.

Were the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines developed using fetal cell
lines?

The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna do not require
the use of any fetal cell cultures in order to manufacture (produce) the vaccine. Early in
the development of mRNA vaccine technology, fetal cells were used for “proof of
concept” (to demonstrate how a cell could take up mRNA and produce the SARS-CoV-2
spike protein) or to characterize the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein… However, such a cell
line was used to test the efficacy of both vaccines.

Was the Johnson & Johnson (Janssen Pharmaceuticals) COVID-19 vaccine

developed using fetal cell lines?

The non-replicating viral vector vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson did
require the use of fetal cell cultures, specifically PER.C6, in order to produce and
manufacture the vaccine.
Sources:

https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine-and-anti-abortion-ethical-
qualms-20210305.html

https://www.health.nd.gov/sites/www/files/documents/COVID%20Vaccine
%20Page/COVID-19_Vaccine_Fetal_Cell_Handout.pdf