Lifestyle

Trump's 'Miracle' COVID Drug Used Stem Cells From Aborted Fetal Tissue

by Cassandra Stone
Trump's 'Miracle' COVID Drug Used Cells From Aborted Fetal Tissue
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty

The practice of using fetal tissue stem cells is something the ‘pro-life’ White House opposes

Last week, COVID-positive President Donald Trump received an antibody treatment developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals that has not been FDA approved and is still undergoing testing. He touted it as a “cure” and a “miracle” drug, but neglected to disclose that the treatment in question is developed using stem cells derived from aborted fetal tissue. Which is exactly the type of science the White House and anti-abortion activist groups have always opposed.

The experimental therapeutic treatment was lauded by Trump in a five-minute-long video, where he went on and on about how quickly and effectively it worked:

“I think this was a blessing from God that I caught [the virus], I think it was a blessing in disguise,” Trump rambles in the video. “I caught it, I heard about this drug, I said, ‘Let me take it’ … and it was incredible the way it worked.”

When it comes to his “pro-life” stance, Donald Trump is a paid actor who in no way actually believes what he’s saying, but says whatever he needs to say to secure the evangelical Christian vote. Anyone with a lick of sense knows this. But because he’s been running on the anti-abortion movement’s shoulders since before 2016, it’s important to focus on the pure hypocrisy at play here.

The Trump administration has made its position on stem cell research clear: they’re against it. Just last year, they halted all government funding to the National Institute of Health (NIH) for research conducted with human fetal tissue obtained from elective abortions. They also ceased funding for the University of California-San Francisco to use human fetal tissue in mice to research HIV therapies.

Research with embryonic stem cells can lead to new, effective treatments for serious human diseases that alleviate the suffering of people with diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, heart failure, and spinal cord injuries, to name a few. It is an extremely valuable research resource in modern medicine.

Which the president now knows, because he directly benefitted from the practice he condemned and stripped funding from just a handful of days ago.

According to a spokesperson from Regeneron, per CBS News, the cells “were used in testing the antibody candidates’ ability to neutralize the virus” and helped researchers “determine the ‘best’ two antibodies, which now make up the REGN-COV2 cocktail.” While there is no fetal tissue in the final product, an embryonic-derived cell line is involved in Regeneron’s testing process for the antibody-drug cocktail Trump received.

Surely, anti-abortion groups will have a field day with this news, right? Since they vehemently oppose the use of any fetal tissue or fetal-derived tissue in pharmaceutical research and even accuse abortion providers of selling fetal body parts on the black market in completely made up propaganda videos. They’re probably feeling so betrayed by their pro-life, modern messiah, super extra Christian president!

LOL, just kidding. They don’t care.

“The president was not given any medicines to treat COVID-19 that involved the destruction of human life,” wrote spokespeople from anti-abortion rights political group Susan B. Anthony List, per CBS News. “No human embryonic stem cells or human fetal tissue were used to produce the treatments President Trump received – period.”

They conveniently did not address the fact that fetal cells were used for testing in the drug’s development process. Because facing the truth isn’t convenient for their agenda, or that of their “king.”