

They wrote that some processed foods contained “various flavoring agents manufactured using the tissue of aborted human babies.” The idea that companies like Pepsi and Kraft were using aborted fetuses as flavour additives was popularized by an article on the infamously pseudoscientific site Natural News in 2015. What about claims that there are aborted fetus cells in some foods?

There is fetal tissue used in the manufacturing of some vaccines, but no vaccine has ever contained tissue from aborted fetuses. The cells themselves are not included in the vaccines. The viruses needed are grown in these cells, then harvested. It’s also important to realize that there is no fetal tissue in vaccines. The abortions in question are so far removed from today’s vaccines that even the Catholic Church deems it allowable to use them. That is some terribly impressive math, at least to me. It’s estimated that 11 million deaths have been prevented by vaccines made with just the WI-38 cell line.Įleven million deaths over 50 years prevented by two abortions. For more than 50 years, two abortions have allowed us to make vaccines against hepatitis A, rubella, shingles and other illnesses. These cell lines have been propagated, kept frozen and are still used today. The second, named MRC-5, was developed in 1966 from the lung tissue of a fetus aborted at 3.5 months gestational age. The first, named WI-38, was developed in 1962 from the lung tissue of a fetus aborted at 3 months gestational age.

There are two cell lines currently used to develop vaccines. So, we prefer to use human cells to culture viruses, but where are we sourcing these cells from? Animal products like chicken eggs can be used, but then there is a risk that an egg shortage could cause a vaccine shortage. Animals are costly to keep alive, may be infected with viruses that could contaminate vaccines, and don’t grow all viruses well. Those cells don’t have to be human but using animal cells for vaccine development causes some problems. Vaccines require viruses, and viruses have to be cultured in cells, as they cannot reproduce on their own. But it’s not as simple as vaccines containing crushed-up aborted fetuses.Īs David Gorski explains for Science-Based Medicine, “fear mongering about 'fetal parts' in vaccines is, not surprisingly, a distortion of the real situation, which is that the human cell lines are used to make some vaccines.” This is not to say that fetal material, specifically fetal cells, do not play a role in the manufacturing of some products.
