9-23-01

ABN Staff

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that the Biden administration "respectfully" disagrees with the Catholic church's stance against using aborted children for medical research.

Reporter Owen Jensen for the Catholic news service EWTN asked Psaki about the rebuke U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops gave to President Joe Biden for reversing the policy of former President Donald Trump that banned such taxpayer-funded research.

"Look, I think the White House respectfully disagrees," said Psaki. "We believe that it's important to invest in science and look for opportunities to cure diseases and that's what I think this is hopeful to do."

The bishops said Biden's reversal was "deeply offensive to millions of Americans."

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, chairman of the Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, blasted the government for having "no right" to such research.

"Our government has no right to treat innocent abortion victims as a commodity that can be scavenged for body parts to be used in research," he said. "It is unethical to promote and subsidize research that can lead to legitimizing the violence of abortion."

Naumann previously said that Biden, who claims to be a religiously devout Catholic, should be denied communion for his stance on abortion.