A new report confirmed that Indiana University, which opposed state law requiring aborted babies to be buried or cremated, has bought fetal brains for $200 each to be used in their research.
The information was verified by the pro-life group Indiana Right to Life, according to Life News.
The report says Indiana University purchased babies' brains from the University of Washington's Department of Pediatrics. An invoice of the transaction was found.
Earlier this year, the university filed a lawsuit against the state for a law passed in March, the '2016 Dignity for the Unborn Law,' which says aborted fetuses should be given proper burial or be cremated. The same law prohibits the sale of aborted body parts and bans abortions on the basis of a disability, race or sex.
According to the law, any person caught selling, acquiring or transferring aborted fetal parts will face felony charges and can be imprisoned for up to six years.
The university, which uses fetal tissue for its research on conditions like Alzheimer's disease and autism, claimed that the law will "institute sweeping and unconstitutional prohibitions" and could have "dramatic" and "catastrophic" effect on neuroscience research.
Indiana University refuted the news that it pays for fetal baby parts, saying the $200 it paid to the University of Washington was meant to cover only shipping expenses.
Addressing Life News in a series of tweets, the university said it only uses tissue from laboratories approved by the National Institutes of Health and that it only utilizes "very small amounts" of the tissues.
"Indiana University does not buy fetuses or fetal body parts for research. IU only uses fetal tissue provided by NIH-approved labs specifically for research purposes," the university said.
The university likewise defended its use of fetal tissue for research. It also clarified that it fully complies with state laws.
"Fetal tissue research at Indiana University is used to find potential treatments and cures for a wide range of diseases," the university said. "Our ground-breaking research is helping find cures for Parkinson's, cancer, blindness, and to slow progression of Alzheimer's."
The school sent the same tweets to Indiana Right to Life. The organization's president, Mike Fichter, issued a statement saying the bodies of aborted babies "should be treated humanely and with respect."
Dr. David Prentice, vice president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, said earlier this year that while researchers claim using fetal tissue is necessary to study and find cures for diseases like Zika virus infection, there has been no evidence that fetal tissue is needed for such studies, OneNewsNow reported.
