By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A new study has found that the legalization of abortion has spawned profitable new commercial causes such as the sale of fetal body parts, tissues and cells, which could be contributing to keeping the industry alive in the U.S.
LifeSiteNews.com is reporting that the report entitled, “Commercial Markets Created by Abortion: Profiting from the Fetal Distribution Chain” was written by Vicki Evans, Respect Life coordinator for the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns. The study doubles as her thesis for a licentiate in bio-ethics which she will receive from Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude.
Her 72-page study was dedicated to finding out how “special interests” or “commercial cause” was driving the abortion industry.
“Putting aside the ideological question for the moment, it appears that abortion-related businesses, silently springing up and maturing over the past forty years, could now be influencing the abortion debate,” she wrote.
For instance, she found that between the fiscal years 2003 and 2008, the 1,787 providers that make up the U.S. abortion industry grew from an $810 million business to $1.038 billion industry.
Over this time period, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s (PPFA) abortion market share dramatically increased from 245,092 abortions ($88.2 million in 2003) to 305,310 abortions ($122.1 million in 2007). By 2008, PPFA had taken 25 percent of the abortion market, more than doubling its market share since 1997 (then 12 percent).
In addition to abortion, the PPFA is also involved with many clinical trials conducted by pharmaceutical companies, with 30 percent of these trials involving teens age 13 to 18.
“Attracting teenagers to contraceptive use is a component of the abortion industry’s business plan, as is offering abortion as a remedy for failed birth control,” Evans writes.
Her study also examined the huge new market that has sprung up involving the sale of fetal parts, tissues and cells, a market no one anticipated would arise at the time of Roe v. Wade. Evans found that the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and biologics sectors are the main industries engaged in fetal tissue research, mainly for production of vaccines.
The cosmetics industry also has an “enormous and increasing demand” for “fetal cell technologies.” What began as products to treat burn victims has now become the latest trend in $30 billion a year anti-aging product industry. Fetal-cell technology is being used to create everything from “miracle” creams to cosmetic procedures involving the injection of aborted fetal tissue.
“Were it not for the legal and cultural protections that surround abortion, Evans study shows that the demand for fetal parts and organs for scientific and commercial purposes could not have happened,” LifeSite reports.
Even though the aborted bodies of millions of fetuses cannot technically be bought or sold, a clandestine market for them exists, her study reveals.
“It is important to shine a light on these practices that take place behind closed doors,” wrote Evans. “There are powerful forces conspiring to keep this information from the public and the media with the ostensible conviction that they are protecting a woman’s right to choose. However, it is becoming obvious that many ideological groups are being used as pawns by powerful financial interests.”
She concludes with a warning that the problem of the commercialization of abortion must be addressed. “Habitual participation in immoral acts inevitably leads to personal desensitization, self-deception and rationalization about what it means to be human,” Evans stated.
“When morality is excluded from a civil society, the weak and vulnerable are easily exploited for the benefit of the strong and powerful. This is the worst brand of injustice. It deserves to be brought to light.”
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