When Immunizations
Become a Prolife Issue
I can still remember the day I found out
that there were vaccines that used aborted babies as part of the
process. I really couldn't believe it! I thought there had to be some
mistake. I was sure that the person who told me about it had gotten
their facts confused. But no, they were right. And, the first vaccine
to use aborted babies occurred back before abortion was legal in the
United States. The baby wasn't aborted here, but the FDA allowed this
vaccine to be licensed despite the illegal status of abortion.
To date, there are 5 vaccines that use
aborted babies as part of the manufacturing process: Rubella, as
found in the M-M-R®II, the M-R-Vax®II, the Meruvax®II,
and the Biavax®II; Poliovax® inactivated vaccine for Polio;
Varivax® Varicella Virus Vaccine Live, for Chicken Pox;
Imovax® Rabies ID, Wistar Rabies Virus Strain PM-1503-3M Vaccine
(and the rabies immune globulin); and the newly recommended
Havrix® Inactivated for Hepatitis A. Some of this information is
fairly easy to find and some of the information needs some history
and medical information to detect.
Rubella
The Rubella Vaccine was the first vaccine to
use aborted babies as a part of the process. Today this strain of
Rubella Vaccine is present in 4 different combinations used in the
United States. These include:
- BiaVax®II - Rubella and Mumps Live
Vaccine
- M-M-R®II - Measles, Mumps and
Rubella Live Vaccine
- M-R-Vax®II - Measles and Rubella
Live Vaccine
- Meruvax®II - Rubella Live Vaccine
The information in the PDR sounds simple
enough: "...sterile lyophilized preparation of the Wistar Institute
RA 27/3 strain of live attenuated rubella virus, grown in human
diploid cell (WI-38) culture..." Physician's Desk Reference (PDR), 50th Edition,
Medical Economics,1996, p. 1613
You have to do some digging to find the
history of this vaccine before the terms "RA 27/3" and
"human diploid cell
(WI-38)" tie in with aborted babies.
Fortunately, the digging is not difficult and the original
documentation was very forthcoming
about the source and manner in which this vaccine was created.
Here are some excerpts from medical journals
which provided specifics about the cell cultures for the Rubella
vaccine:
- Gamma Globulin Prophylaxis;
Inactivated Rubella Virus; Production and Biological Control of
Live Attenuated Rubella Virus Vaccines ; Amer J Dis Child Vol 118
Aug 1969
- Dr. K McCarthy:
It seems to me that there
are two things that we worry about in regards to WI-38 cell
substrate. First of all, presence of extraneous viral agents;
secondly, the possibility of there being human genetic material
passed over into the vaccine. I wonder if there is any information
about the reasons for aborting that particular embryo that gave
rise to WI-38; and if it was from a family, whether we have any
information about siblings from the family and whether they are
normal?
- Dr.S Plotkin, Philadelphia:
I should like to answer Dr.
McCarthy's question. This fetus was chosen by Dr. Sven Gard,
specifically for this purpose. Both parents are known, and
unfortunately for the story, they are married to each other, still
alive and well, and living in Stockholm, presumably. The abortion
was done because they felt they had too many children. There were
no familial diseases in the history of either parent, and no
history of cancer specifically in the families; I believe this
answers Dr. McCarthy's question.
-
- Attenuation Of RA 27/3 Rubella Virus
in WI-38 Human Diploid Cells; Amer J Dis Child vol 118 Aug 1969
- Explant cultures were made of the
dissected organs of a particular fetus aborted because of rubella,
the 27th in our series of fetuses aborted during the 1964
epidemic. The third explant, which happened to be from kidney, was
selected arbitrarily for further study.
-
- Studies of Immunization With
Living Rubella Virus ; Arch J Dis Child vol 110 Oct
1965
- This fetus was from a 25 year old
mother exposed to rubella 8 days after last menstrual period.
16 days later she developed rubella. The fetus was surgically
aborted 17 days after maternal illness and dissected
immediately. Explants from several organs were cultured and
successful cell growth was achieved from lung, skin, and
kidney. It was then grown on WI-38. This new vaccine was tested
on orphans in Philadelphia.
Twenty-seven babies aborted because of
rubella exposure before they could isolate the rubella virus in any
tissue. And, a baby was aborted, not because of rubella in the mom,
but because this couple felt they had too many children. Some would
say that at least some good came out of it, but I would ask, "Wasn't
this too high a price to pay? Couldn't tissue have been taken from a
living person instead?"
Many have asked why manufacturers wanted
fetal tissue. This article attempts to answer that question.
- Production and Testing of Rubella
Virus Vaccine prepared on WI-38 cell cultures; Amer J Dis Child
vol 118 Aug 1969
- Methods
- Virus Production --Hoskins and Plotkin
have shown that human diploid cell strains are readily susceptible
to chronic infection without cytopathic effects by rubella virus.
The infected cells resemble control cells morphologically, but the
ability to multiply may be inhibited.
In other words, the cells gained from
aborted children take the infection readily without causing damage to
the virus. Another concern also addressed in the use of aborted
babies is the ability to prevent other disease strains from
contaminating the sample and the ability to avoid the cross-species
jumping of diseases that occurs when animal tissues are used.
A final note before leaving Rubella: This
vaccine was tested on orphans in Philadelphia. Therefore there were
no living parents to object to the testing and raise concern over
children being used as test subjects. This is one of many times in
medical history when those who had no voice or who were not given the
right to refuse were used to further the gains of the drug companies.
More about this issue later.
Imovax® Rabies ID
The human rabies vaccine was produced by the
same company that produced the Rubella vaccine, Wistar. The
description in the PDR says "The virus is harvested from infected
human diploid cells, MRC-5 strain..." You will notice the same
description of "human diploid cells" from the Rubella vaccine.
Wistar Institute had discovered that human
aborted children made good cell medium, so they decided to repeat the
procedure for human rabies. There is no proof that the Rabies virus
was introduced into the mother prior to the abortion, so we assume
that her life was not in danger.
The Immune Globulin, the same serum we give
to humans bitten by a suspected or confirmed rabid animal, was
prepared by taking blood plasma from individuals who had been
immunized with the Imovax® vaccine. Therefore, the immune
globulin has been tainted with the same use of aborted
children.
Poliovax®
Poliovax is an inactivated or killed version
of the Polio vaccine. It contains three different types of polio
virus: Type 1 (Mahoney), Type 2 (M.E.F.1), and Type 3 (Saukett) which
have been grown in human diploid cell cultures MRC-5. Note, these are
the same cell cultures obtained for the rabies vaccine.
Under the heading Clinical Pharmacology, this explanation follows as to why human aborted
babies were used:
This inactivated poliovirus is
produced using cells from a human diploid cell line, MRC-5 cells,
grown on microcarriers in suspension culture such that infection
results in a production of high titer poliovirus. The virus is
concentrated and purified prior to inactivation, then quantitative
potency measurements are made prior to formulation of the trivalent
vaccine. In these respects this vaccine differs from the inactivated
poliovirus of monkey kidney cell origin. Because this vaccine is more
consistently immunogenic than that which was previously available, it
is intended to replace the monkey kidney cell derived Poliovirus
Vaccine Inactivated (formerly Poliomyelitis Vaccine).
Monkey kidney cells had been proven to carry
SV-40, a form of AIDS present in monkeys. This same SV-40 is showing
up in human cancer tumors found in children who's parents were
vaccinated with the tainted vaccine. Concern that the SV-40 was also
causing immune-deficiency problems in humans led to it's removal from
the list of acceptable vaccines.
According to the manufacturers of
Poliovax®, using human cells makes a more potent vaccine and
therefore creates a higher immunologic response without the danger of
cross-species transfer of diseases. Add that to the information
provided with the Rubella vaccine that it was easier to infect the
tissue without causing damage to the virus, and you have some
compelling reasons why drug companies might consider aborted children
to be good medium for vaccines.
Varivax®
The chicken pox vaccine is an interesting
study in the use of aborted human babies. The following is the
description of the vaccine found in the PDR:
Varivax® [Varicella Virus
Vaccine Live (Oka/Merck)] is a preparation of the Oka/Merck strain of
live, attenuated varicella virus. The virus was initially obtained
from a child with natural varicella, then introduced into human
embryonic lung cell cultures, adapted to and propagated in embryonic
guinea pig cell cultures and finally propagated in human diploid cell
cultures (WI-38). Further passage of the virus for varicella vaccine
was performed at Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) in human diploid
cell cultures (MRC-5) that were free of adventitious agents.
Please note how many children, live and
aborted were used to make this vaccine! One live child with natural
chicken pox, one aborted child's embryonic lung cells, and a second
human aborted child from the same cell cultures used for the Rubella,
WI-38, and then a third pass into the same aborted cell cultures used
for the rabies and polio vaccines. If you count the embryonic guinea
pig, that's 3 aborted human babies and at least one aborted guinea
pig and one live child! What in the world is Merck
thinking??!!
All this for a vaccine that was marketed as
a way to save thousands of parents from having to take a week or so
off work to stay home with their sick child. All this for a disease
that is generally mild in children and far more debilitating in
adults who often evidence symptoms as shingles. and, since the
vaccine doesn't provide life-long immunity, one must either get
boosters every 5 - 10 years or contract chicken pox or shingles later
in life. What a wonderful trade-off!
Havrix®
Havrix is the Hepatitis A vaccine. The PDR
description for this vaccine includes the following:
Harvix (Hepatitis A Vaccine,
Inactivated) is a noninfectious Hepatitis A vaccine developed and
manufactured by Smith-Kline Beecham Biologicals. The virus (strain
HM175) is propagated on MRC-5 human diploid cells.
Note the use of MRC-5 cell cultures again as
found in the chicken pox, rabies and polio vaccines.
The Bottom Line
Drug companies that make vaccines have
discovered the tissue from aborted babies make good cell medium in
which to grow viruses they want to use to make vaccines. They assume
that the use of human aborted tissue causes fewer problems in the
long run and higher immune titers. And, they believe that parents
either don't know or don't care that they are doing it. I would agree
that most parents don't know. I would not agree that most don't
care!
There are a growing number of parents who
are investigating vaccines and finding out about the use of aborted
tissue. Many of these parents are opting to take religious and
philosophical exemptions to prevent the administration of these
vaccines to their children. This may not be the only reason they
choose not to vaccinate, but for many, it is a contributing
factor.
Religious and philosophical exemptions allow
parents the right to selectively vaccinate their children. This may
mean that they choose only to avoid vaccines using aborted children.
The exemption laws don't require parents to explain their reasoning.
If You Thought The Other Was
Bad...
I wish I could say that the only pro-life
immunization issue was the use of aborted children. However, it
isn't! Vaccination programs in some third world countries have been
used to create a "population control vaccine" by using a Tetanus
vaccine that has been "enhanced."
The following news article appeared several
years ago and explains this vaccine strategy:
- Unknowing Women Victims of Hidden
Birthcontrol Vaccine
- During the early 1990's the WHO (World
Health Organization) has been overseeing massive vaccination
campaigns against Tetanus in a number of countrie, including
Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Philippines . In 1994 suspicion of
these campaign protocols began. The vaccine protocols called for
three injections in three months and five total within a year's
time . These tetanus vaccines were given only to woman age 12-49;
children and men were excluded. More alarm bells went off when
many of the pregnant women who were given the tetanus vaccine
began to experience bleeding and early miscarriages .
- When several vials of this tetanus
vaccine were analyzed by chemists, many of the vials contained
Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG) which the body uses to
maintain pregnancy. So what does this all mean? Well when hCG is
injected into the body with a tetanus toxoid carrier (a tetanus
toxoid is used because the human body does not attack it's own
naturally occurring hormone hCG), the body will then begin to
produce antibodies to hCG. So when a woman becomes pregnant and a
sufficient amount of anti-hCG antibodies is built up in her
system, she then becomes unable to maintain a pregnancy and she
will miscarry
- Here are a few journal articles on
anti-fertility vaccines utilizing tetanus toxoids as a carrier
(many written by WHO researchers):
- (Contraception Feb. 1976, pp. 253-268)
"Clinical profile and Toxicology Studies on Four Women Immunized
with Pr-B-hCG-TT."
- (The Lancet June 1988, pp.1295-1298)
"Phase 1 Clinical Trials of a World Health Organization Birth
Control Vaccine."
- (Fertility and Sterility Oct. 1980, pp.
328-335) "Observations on the antigenicity and clinical effects of
a candidate antipregnancy vaccine: B-subunit of human chorionic
gonadotropin linked to tetanus toxoid."
- (Scandinavian Journal of Immunology Vol.
36, 1992, pgs. 123-126) "Anti-hCG Vaccines are in Clinical
Trials."
- Here are a few newspaper
articles:
- The Philippine Star, April 4, 1995 "3
DOH vaccines untested by BFAD,"
- Ottawa Citizen, April 4, 1995 Ottawa got
blood tainted by HIV."A communiqué from Tanzania tells
about tetanus toxoid vaccinations, five in all, given only to
women aged 15-45. Nigeria, too, may have been a victim to this hCG
vaccine ( see also The Lancet June 4, 1988, p. 1273)
The following is a copy of one of the
articles that appeared once the information became public:
- Philippine Medical Association
study indicates that women were injected with contaminated tetanus
vaccine
- FRONT ROYAL, VA Have women in the
Philippines, and possibly elsewhere, surreptitiously been used as
guinea pigs in an international anti-fertility campaign?
- A new medical study in the Philippines
suggests that may well be the case. A recent study conducted by
the Philippine Medical Association on behalf of the Philippine
Department of Health revealed that almost 20 percent of the
tetanus vaccine sampled positive for the hormone human chorionic
gonadotrophin (hCG), according to Human Life International.
Vaccines containing the hormone immunize women not only against
tetanus but also against pregnancy by inducing the body's immune
system to attack the hormone needed to bring an unborn child to
term."
- This study lends credence to what Human
Life International (HLI) and some other groups have suspected all
along," said Father Matthew Habiger, president of the
international pro-life/family organization. "We first began to
hear reports last year about tetanus vaccination campaigns in the
developing world that targeted only women of child-bearing or
pre-child bearing years, and that they required multiple
injections. The vaccination program is sponsored by the World
Health Organization, an agency with a 20-year history of
researching anti-fertility vaccines," Fr. Habiger said. "We
brought our suspicions to the world's attention. This new study
greatly heightens our concerns."
- The WHO and certain feminist
organizations that claim to care about the health of women
publicly attacked HLI after it called for an investigation of the
widespread allegations about contaminated vaccine. "In light of
the new Philippine study, it appears that these groups have
squandered their credibility," Fr. Habiger said.
- The Philippine Medical Association
reported that nine of the 47 vaccine samples tested were found to
contain hCG, and released a letter signed by the three Philippine
physicians who actually tested the vaccines. The PMA president
attested to the veracity of the letter and the testing process.
All the vaccines sampled were taken from various health centers in
Luzon and Mindanao. Almost all of them were labeled by one of two
Canadian firms, Connaught or Intervax. All the samples were tested
with an immunoassay-based method developed by the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration.
- The Philippine Medical Association
report closes the first stage of a two-part investigation of
contaminated vaccines in the Philippines. The protocol for the
second stage of the test testing the women vaccinated for
antibodies to hCG has been submitted the Philippine Department of
Health and is awaiting funding. In a letter to the Philippine
Department of Health, HLI urged immediate approval of the second
stage to uncover the full dimensions of this scandal.
- The tetanus vaccine tested in the
Philippines was imported as part of a program against neonatal
tetanus sponsored by the WHO. Similar vaccination protocols have
also been observed in WHO programs administered in Mexico and
Nicaragua. Tests of the vaccine in Mexico yielded similar results
but none of those tests was performed as part of an actual
investigation into the contamination.
- "We view the adulteration of tetanus
vaccine with hCG to be a matter of grave concern," said Fr.
Habiger. "It is absolutely essential that any country which has
this program in place begin testing vaccines for contamination."
- Noting that it is unlikely contaminated
vaccine would still be in circulation after public concerns were
raised last year, Fr. Habiger suggested that researchers attempt
to focus on acquiring and testing unused vaccines distributed
prior the public outcry over vaccine contamination. He said it is
even more important that women who previously received the vaccine
be tested for the telltale presence of hCG antibodies in their
bloodstream and that the numbers of miscarriages experienced by
vaccinated women be tabulated.
- "We are not making any accusations at
this stage," Fr. Habiger said. "But we strongly suspect something
is seriously amiss. And public confidence in these kinds of
vaccination campaigns has been critically eroded in several
developing nations. Only an objective, scientifically valid study
of this matter will lay public concerns to rest." Human Life
International 4 Family Life, Front Royal, VA 22630 U.S.A.
Once drug companies decide it is okay to use
aborted babies to make vaccines, it's not a large jump to try to
produce a population control vaccine. Once they decide it's okay to
test vaccines on unsuspecting Philadelphia orphans or refuse to treat
syphilitic African American men so they could watch the progression
of the disease, it's not a great jump to decide to test a population
control vaccine on childbearing aged women in third world countries
where they are unlikely to protest or sue.
In Conclusion
At first glance, immunization might not
appear to be a pro-life issue, but when you dig a little deeper, it's
there. Parents who want to use a religious exemption may want to
check out the following pages:
Religious Exemption
Page
Religious and
Philosophical Exemption Worksheet
Vaccine Refusal
Form
Why Vaccine
Choice Is Important
They may also want to get more information
by ordering the Parent Information packet entitled: Vaccines: A Matter of Choice, Safety and Value.
To respond to this article, you may contact
the author, Rev. Kathryn
Rateliff, CCD, CCCE, SM
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