The Fetal Organ “Chop Shop” Exposed

“These types of documents are the most morally disturbing that I’ve ever seen in my time at Judicial Watch.”

Judicial Watch is representing the Center for Medical Progress in a FOIA request battle for information on a federally-funded human organ harvesting project at the University of Pittsburgh. The 252 pages of documents received thus far reveal shocking details of the university’s quest to become a “tissue hub” for human organ harvesting. As Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton noted in the Weekly Update, the documents show that “the NIH … gave nearly three million dollars to the University of Pittsburgh’s quest to be a tissue hub for human fetal tissue ranging from 6 to 42 weeks gestation.” “By the way,” Fitton added, “42 weeks is typically two weeks past a normal pregnancy.” 

The recently uncovered 2015 funding request from the University states that the project aims to “develop a pipeline to the acquisition, quality control and distribution of human genitourinary [urinary and genital organs and functions] samples obtained throughout development [and] generate an ongoing resource to distribute fresh developmental human genitourinary samples from various stages (6-42 weeks) to the GUDMAP [GenitoUrinary Development Molecular Anatomy Project] Atlas projects.” 

Specifically, the 2015 funding proposal states that the university’s dispersal of “fresh samples,” collected from a total of 77 cases could have been “significantly ramped up” to 725 cases with the support of federal funds. As Fitton reminded viewers, “they’re talking about organs from dead human beings obtained through elective abortions.” Fitton noted that the University’s proposal boasts of a lab equipped with a “’butcher boy band saw’ for sectioning bone,” as well as a “frozen section room that has a digital video feed to and from the operating rooms [that] allows for instantaneous discussions with the surgeons as well as immediate show and tell for them.” 

“So the University of Pittsburgh was upset that they didn’t have your tax dollars to harvest the organs from hundreds of unborn babies who were killed through abortion,” Fitton explained. “To make it worse,” he continued, “there’s a racial target for harvesting. Of its planned aborted subjects, Pitt desired 50% to be minority fetuses. The proposal suggests that the subjects be diverse because Pittsburgh is diverse,” he explained.  “This is pretty terrible stuff, to put it mildly,” Fitton concluded. Read more about Judicial Watch’s findings here.

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