The National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act was passed in 1993 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
The legislation, sponsored in the Senate by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, "allowed research on human fetal tissue, regardless of whether the tissue came from a voluntary
abortion," The Huffington Post said.
The act has come into the news recently after purported videos of a Planned Parenthood worker talking about sales of
fetal tissue went viral, The Hill reported.
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The footage, taken by pro-life activists, angered many across the country, including some in Congress who sought to defund the health organization, which provides birth control, counseling and abortion services around the country. A defunding measure f
ailed in the Senate, CNN said.
There are many provisions authorized in the
NIH Health Revitalization Act, according to GovTrack.
1. The act says that fetal tissue harvest from abortion "requires certain written statements by the donor, physician, researcher, and donee."
2. The act "prohibits directed donations and alteration of the timing or procedures of abortions," and "requires that abortion consent be obtained before requesting or obtaining donation consent."
3. Criminal penalties can be imposed in the act for "transferring such tissue for valuable consideration affecting interstate commerce, or soliciting or receiving a directed donation."
4. The act bars an official working in the executive branch of government "from imposing a policy prohibiting the Department of Health and Human Services from conducting or supporting such research."
5. It requires a General Accounting Office audit and corresponding report that explains whether such provisions in the bill have been violated.
6. It creates several research offices including the Office of Research on Women's Health, the Office of Research on Minority Health, the Office of Research Integrity, a Commission on Research Integrity, the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research and the Office of Alternative Medicine.
7. The Act also establishes: the National Cancer Institute, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the National Institute on Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Eye Institute and the National Library of Medicine, among others.
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