The materials and methods section of one
study in which fetal intestines were transplanted into mice explains,
“Fetal gut tissues (18–24 g. w.) were obtained from women with normal pregnancies before elective termination for nonmedical reasons with informed consent according to local, state, and federal regulations.”
This means the fetuses used were healthy, free from abnormalities, and often over 21 weeks, the stage at which babies can survive outside the womb with medical care.
Despite Health and Human Services terminating a single contract in 2018, according to records from the National Institutes of Health, UCSF received over $2 million from the federal government in
2018 for a study using “Humanized Mouse Models.” In
2019, UCSF received over $600,000 from the federal government for six different studies using fetal tissue
