Wisconsin senators consider bills to limit research using fetal tissues

Jason Stein
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - Senators Thursday debated bills to restrict research on tissues derived from aborted fetuses as Republicans considered whether to drop the legislation as they did two years ago. 

The Wisconsin State Capitol.

Chelsea Shields, a lobbyist for the anti-abortion group Wisconsin Right to Life, said if senators don't advance the bills soon they could once again end up failing to pass the GOP-controlled Legislature. 

"The time to act is now," Shields said, underlining the challenges facing the bills. 

But for now, at least, no action is planned, said an aide to Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine), chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety.

"We will not vote until we know one of the bills has the votes to pass the Senate," Wanggaard chief of staff Scott Kelly said after the hearing. 

Supporters of the measures say remove an incentive for abortions and would end what their side sees as a moral outrage. Opponents disagree on both counts. 

"It will not prevent a single abortion but it will definitely end potentially lifesaving research in Wisconsin," Bob Golden, the dean of the University of Wisconsin Medical School, told the Senate panel

The committee heard testimony Thursday on three bills dealing with the issue in different ways:

  • Senate Bill 422, a bill put forward by Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), would ban the sale of fetal tissues and the use of tissues that have been sold for research. The measure, however, would allow researchers to use tissues from abortions that occurred before the effective date of the bill for seven years. Researchers who did receive fetal tissues would have to keep documentation that the tissues were not sold for profit. 
  • Senate Bill 423, sponsored by Sen. Terry Moulton (R-Chippewa Falls), would ban the transfer of fetal tissues from an abortion clinic to researchers but would allow scientists to keep using tissues from abortions that occurred before Jan. 1, 2017. Groups that transfer or do research on banned tissues would face fines of between $50,000 and $100,000, but the bill would not directly penalize the individuals involved.
  • Senate Bill 424, another Moulton bill, would put requirements on medical providers for handling the remains of a stillborn or miscarried fetus and for informing their parents of the options for disposing of the tissue or donating it for research. 

Similar legislation was put forward in recent legislative sessions but has failed to garner the votes needed to pass. The fact that some GOP senators favor the Moulton bill and others back the Darling bill may make it harder to pass either. 

Much of the research in question involves work with self-sustaining tissue lines developed in the 1960s and 1970s that resulted from abortions that are now decades in the past. Work on those cell lines could continue under any of the bills. 

But Golden, the UW official, told the committee that some university scientists would either have to stop their projects or leave the state if the restrictions on fetal tissue become law. Golden said it would be difficult to tell patients suffering from conditions such as Alzheimer's that the state is banning research that could one day help them. 

Golden said that federal law already prohibits making a profit from fetal tissue sales and that no UW research uses tissues from abortions performed in Wisconsin. Planned Parenthood has also said that no research is done on tissues from abortions performed at its Wisconsin clinics.

Sen. Duey Stroebel (R-Saukville) told Golden that GOP lawmakers don't oppose research on fetal tissues, saying they simply want to see researchers use tissues from sources such as miscarriages rather than from abortions. 

Golden said that right now tissues from sources such as miscarriages can't be used for the research in question. Future breakthroughs might change that, he said.