A legislative committee has endorsed a ban on using aborted fetal tissue for medical research, and approved millions-of-dollars in cuts to Planned Parenthood.
The state Senate’s health panel sent the bills to the full Senate Tuesday on three-to-two votes. Both Democrats voted no. The bill allows medical research on tissue from abortions which occurred before January 2015. UW researchers oppose the bill, as does Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s biggest business lobby group.
An Assembly committee recently endorsed a partial fetal tissue ban, prohibiting research only with tissue from babies aborted this year. Senator Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) said Senate Republicans will have “driven off a cliff” if they don’t approve the same compromise. Senator Terry Moulton (R-Chippewa Falls) said use of aborted body parts for research is “unethical.”
The committee voted to remove $3.5 million dollars in federal Title X funds for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, and give it instead to a state-run women’s health program. The Assembly passed that bill last month. The panel also endorsed Medicaid changes that would take away $4-million annually in Planned Parenthood’s medicine reimbursements.
