Buck, Lamborn's COVID-19 Priority? "Baby Body Parts!"

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by: Colorado Pols

Rep. Doug Lamborn (R).

Michael Karlik reports for the Colorado Springs Gazette:

U.S. Reps. Doug Lamborn and Ken Buck signed on to a letter to the Trump Administration on Tuesday advising against a suspension of the ban on fetal tissue research — which they described as “research using aborted baby body parts” — in pursuit of a treatment for COVID-19.

“Aborted fetal tissue from ongoing abortions, however, has never been used in the production of a single vaccine,” reads the Lamborn-led letter, which over 120 Republican House members co-signed. “While a few old cell lines derived from abortion in the 1960s and 1970s continues to be used for a small handful of vaccines, most vaccines today use more efficient, modern cell lines and production techniques.”

Except, well, that’s not exactly, you know, accurate:

The Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University notes that some vaccines to prevent rubella, measles, rabies, poliomyelitis, hepatitis A, chickenpox and smallpox use tissue from abortions. Scientists seeking to use fetal tissue in mice to create more realistic trials of potential COVID-19 treatments on humans have run into a 2019 federal ban on using donated tissue…

Obviously, we’re not infectious disease research experts, and are in no position to comment one way or the other about the efficacy of fetal tissue in research to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. We have no problem admitting this up front so you know where we’re coming from.

What we do know is that Reps. Doug Lamborn and Ken Buck are not qualified scientists either, and themselves have no clue or concern whether fetal tissue could be useful in life-saving COVID-19 research. For both of them, this is just another opportunity to recite a gruesome pre-existing litany of misleading talking points about so-called “baby body parts” in medical research–the same stuff that motivated a psycho named Robert Dear to open fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs a few years ago.

If you’re asking the obvious question, “Really? Can they not? At least not right now?”

We’re sorry to inform you they will never miss the chance.

7 thoughts on “Buck, Lamborn’s COVID-19 Priority? “Baby Body Parts!””

Conserv. Head Banger says:

April 16, 2020 at 11:20 am

One of the founders of the modern conservative movement in the US was the late Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ).

His take on abortion: "it's not a conservative issue. It's a matter between a woman and her doctor." Pretty bedrock, common sense, conservatism there.

Of course, that was before the radical anti-abortion and anti-contraception religious zealots took control of the Republican party. Interestingly, Goldwater warned about how that could happen. He opposed the zealots.

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1. Diogenesdemar says:
  
  April 16, 2020 at 12:24 pm
  
  FIFY
  
  One of the founders of the modern ~~conservative~~ extremist radical-right movement in the US was the late Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ).
  
  . . . and tool that he was, he was still able to recognize that the even-bigger tools have no business inserting themselves into doctor-patient medical decisions.
  
  Let’s give Barry all his proper credit where it’s due . . .
  
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  1. Conserv. Head Banger says:
    
    April 16, 2020 at 12:26 pm
    
    Dio: no politician is perfect. Barry had his issues. But on this one, he was 100% correct.
    
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Duke Cox says:

April 16, 2020 at 12:01 pm

@CHB

And to your credit…so do you.

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1. Conserv. Head Banger says:
  
  April 16, 2020 at 1:01 pm
  
  Coming from you, Duke, that's a real compliment. Cheers!
  
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JohnInDenver says:

April 16, 2020 at 12:41 pm

Goldwater had the gift of thinking things through and remaining consistent. His "small government" position suggested governments should not excessively restrict people's right to get guns — but that meant they should not excessively restrict women's right to get medical services, too. If government should stay out of the restaurants and let people choose to discriminate or not, then government should stay out of the bedrooms and let people choose who to "associate" with. And if government was going to allow sales of alcohol with sin taxes on it, then it should allow sales of marijuana with a sin tax, too.

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kwtree says:

April 16, 2020 at 10:30 pm

Where are these Warriors for Life when it comes to the dire situation in nursing homes? Aren’t elderly people a reliable Republican voting demographic? Babies don’t vote. Nursing home residents do ( or at least, they can). Isn’t respect for the elderly supposed to be a Family Value?

Any of the regions with high covid19 death rates have high nursing home/assisted living death rates. But they often aren’t counted, being attributed to pneumonia or other common “old age” morbidities. A Massachusetts “soldier’s home” had 28 deaths in the last two months, and over 120 staff and residents testing positive. . A New Jersey nursing home had 13 corpses removed after they had died in the facility and the staff was overwhelmed.

Here in Jeffco, my ex, a disabled veteran, is hoping that the staff and residents continue to be healthy at his small assisted living place. They were overjoyed when I dropped off TP and wipes a couple of weeks ago. They don’t have masks. We’re making masks for staff and residents. The residents can’t have visitors- so he hasn’t seen his kids or grandkids in weeks.

My elderly godmother is a virtual prisoner in her assisted-living apartment. The floor above hers is a medical floor for those who need more care, so she isn’t supposed to go out at all. And they are the lucky ones. Can you imagine how terrified staff and residents of some of these little “homes” are when folks start getting sick?

In Ireland, they made a commitment to their elders. They sent tests, resources and staff to beleaguered nursing facilities. Ireland’s death rate from CV19 is much lower than that of neighboring Britain.

Maddow’s hair is on fire over this, as it should be. But somehow, our “pro-life” representatives Buck, Lamborn, et al, could care less about nursing home resident’s lives. They are worse than useless as public officials.

Kudos to those of you (Michael B and Jason S that I know of from our virtual meetup) who are caring for frail or vulnerable elders to help them through this crisis.

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