OPINION:
Today, the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance will hold an executive session to consider Thomas Bell for the role of inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services. Nominated by President Trump in March, Mr. Bell has run up against opposition from Senate Democrats and the abortion lobby because of his time investigating abortion facilities and fetal tissue trafficking allegations.
If confirmed, Mr. Bell will have the opportunity to reopen a federal investigation into disturbing research using aborted fetal tissue at the University of Pittsburgh and its affiliated medical center, UPMC. The inquiry was initiated in 2021 at the urging of congressional Republicans after the release of a 2015 grant proposal submitted to the National Institutes of Health in which the university touted its access to an ample supply of high-quality fetal organs and its ability to minimize the time between tissue collection and storage.
Pitt leveraged its relationship with nearby UPMC Magee-Womens, the largest abortion hospital in Pennsylvania, to obtain millions of dollars in NIH funding for the project. With taxpayer money in hand, the university created a storage and distribution hub for aborted fetal organs, including kidneys and bladders. Concerns soon followed about whether state and federal laws were being broken by altering abortion procedures and keeping babies alive to improve research outcomes.
The university countered the allegations by hiring a Washington law firm to conduct an audit of its practices. Attorneys overseeing the review, one of whom was a Pitt alumnus, concluded that neither the tissue bank nor the researchers had engaged in wrongdoing. Suspiciously, the firm’s findings focused solely on Pitt and did not extend to a thorough review of the hospital where the tissue originated.
Legal questions about abortions at Magee-Womens have not been unwarranted, as the hospital supplied born-alive babies to be experimented upon throughout the 20th century. From the 1930s through the 1960s, a Pitt anatomist would resuscitate aborted fetuses at the hospital to conduct reflexive movement studies. In the 1970s, a nurse testified before a state law commission that she observed moving babies being packed in ice and transported to a lab.
More recently, Magee-Womens provided fetal scalps from second-trimester babies terminated in elective abortions to the university for grafting onto mice and rats, according to an NIH-funded immunology study published in 2020. After intense scrutiny from pro-life groups, the hospital’s board of directors closed its doors to the public in violation of state code, and a newly hired research director who was unfamiliar with the humanized rodent experiment gave ambiguous testimony before the Pennsylvania House Health Committee.
In addition to its strong relationship with the hospital, Pitt has maintained close connections with NIH. At the height of the fetal tissue controversy, Pitt administrators contacted former NIH Director Francis Collins for support in defending research using aborted babies. The university ranks sixth nationally in funding received from the agency among higher education institutions. Just last week, the NIH committed approximately $100 million to cover overhead costs for medical research at Pitt over the next four years.
Mr. Bell is well acquainted with barriers to transparency in abortion practices and related research, given his time serving as the staff director for the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives. The panel examined federal compliance by abortion providers in the fetal tissue procurement industry after the release of undercover videos, which included footage of abortion doctors who have trained and practiced at Magee-Womens.
During his Finance Committee hearing last month, Mr. Bell testified that he would “follow the law and follow the facts” regarding the oversight of abortion facilities if confirmed.
Mr. Trump’s nominee has the experience and knowledge to uncover lingering mysteries that have been kept behind closed doors at Magee-Womens. The Senate Finance Committee would be wise to advance his nomination.
• Ryan Navarro is a licensed therapist in Pittsburgh. He interned and worked for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
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