The University of Pittsburgh is still reeling after it was discovered that its medical school was harvesting tissue and organs from aborted babies. That practice included an experiment grafting an aborted baby's scalp skin onto the back of a rat to see if hair would grow. It did.
Maria Gallagher of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation tells AFN that state lawmakers are trying to bring such experimentation to a halt. "This is where the rubber meets the road," she tells AFN. "Are we going to tolerate this type of barbaric experimentation on preborn babies?"
Pro-life lawmakers have attached an amendment to a bill in their effort to send a message to medical schools at Pitt, Penn State, Lincoln, and Temple – but as The Associated Press points out, Pitt is the target of the measure.
"The amendment was attached to the state budget, which is now the subject of negotiations between the House and the Senate and the governor's office," Gallagher explains. "So, we will see where this leads."
If the amendment were to go into law, the state could penalize a university that violates it by withdrawing state funding to the schools. The University of Pittsburgh alone is set to receive $155 million in the proposed budget for next year; the amendment would send more than $597 million combined to the four schools.
The budget legislation is due to be passed by Thursday (July 7), the final day of the state government's budget year.
