"Morally suspect commercial offshoots"
Respect Life Coordinator for San Francisco Archdiocese authors study revealing growth of 'clandestine businesses' that use fetal remains in their products
Vicki Evans, Respect Life Coordinator for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, has authored a study, "Commercial Markets Created by Abortion: Profiting From the Fetal Distribution Chain," which served as her thesis for a licentiate in bioethics from Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome, where she recently graduated summa cum laude. In her study, Evans reveals, "Legal and widespread abortion has made possible a host of clandestine business practices that thrive under the radar of the American populace."
"Abortion in the United States has become a $1 billion-a-year industry quietly fostered over 40 years by a climate that is allowing related, morally suspect commercial offshoots to develop in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and life sciences," said a news report on Evan's study published in the May 4 edition of the archdiocesan newspaper Catholic San Francisco.
Among the findings in Evans' study cited in the Catholic San Francisco article:
-- There were 1,787 abortion providers in the United States in 2005.
-- Planned Parenthood Federation of America's abortion market share grew from 12% in 1997 to nearly 25% in 2008.
-- "PPFA presents a comprehensive case study on how business evolves to capitalize on changes in the law and the prevailing culture" -- During the 1990 through 2008 election cycles, the abortion industry made political contributions of $15.76 million. Of this amount, $12.61 million, or 80%, went to abortion-supportive Democrats running for office.
-- The predominant industries engaged in fetal tissue research are part of the emerging life-science industry: the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and biologics sectors. Commercial use of fetal tissue has historically revolved around the production of childhood vaccines but is now expanding into vaccines to treat flu, HIV and more.
-- The cosmetics industry, particularly the anti-aging market segment, is a beneficiary of the growth of abortion. From miracle creams and emulsions developed using fetal-cell technologies, to face lifts and cosmetic procedures injecting aborted fetal tissue to promote youth and vitality, this business sector has an "enormous and increasing demand" for fetal cells and organs."
-- A fetal parts industry could not have developed without a legal and protected abortion structure. Millions of fetuses that are by-products of abortion cannot technically be bought and sold, but a market does exist.
"Legal and widespread abortion has made possible a host of clandestine business practices that thrive under the radar of the American populace," Evans wrote in a synopsis of her 72-page study. "Regulation and transparency are often avoided because of ideological fears of limiting access to abortion or of inviting scrutiny by opposing ideological groups. Thus, the commercialization of human beings as commodities persists."
"A certified pubic accountant, Evans used her financial background to follow the money trail in the abortion industry and related businesses," reported Catholic San Francisco.
"I wanted to come up with a body of knowledge that nobody else had thought of before," Evans told Catholic San Francisco. "In following the money and seeing who gets paid for what and how much they get paid, and how unregulated these areas are, I found a lot of facts that a lot of people wouldn't have noticed or wouldn't have thought to look for."
To read Evan's full study, Click Here.
To read the full article in Catholic San Francisco, Click Here.
