House Votes to End Ban on Fetal Tissue Research Funds : Science: Bush has threatened a veto. The restrictions have pitted abortion foes against medical groups.

The House on Thursday resoundingly approved legislation lifting a three-year ban on federally funded medical and scientific research using fetal tissue obtained from abortions.

The action sets the stage for a showdown with President Bush, who has threatened to veto the bill.

The vote was 274 to 144, two votes short of the number needed to sustain a veto if every House member is present and voting. But advocates of the bill said they are within striking distance of overriding a veto.

“I’m optimistic we can turn around several who voted against us and override a veto if we have to,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who sponsored the legislation. “I’m still hopeful, however, that the President will reconsider his position and seek to work with us.

“I am pleased the House passed the bill by such a strong margin,” added Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health and the environment. “It shows that this issue is not viewed as an abortion question, but as a matter of research freedom.”

The provision was contained in legislation reauthorizing programs of the National Institutes of Health. An NIH reauthorization bill has been introduced in the Senate but it does not contain a provision that would overturn the fetal tissue ban. If the Senate does not add a fetal provision when it acts on the legislation, a House-Senate conference committee would have to decide whether to keep the provision in the final form of the bill.

The controversial fetal tissue ban has been the subject of intense public debate since it was first imposed by the Ronald Reagan Administration in April, 1988. The ban has pitted medical researchers--who believe the field holds promise for treatment of an array of diseases--against anti-abortion forces who argue that use of fetal tissue will encourage more abortions.

Medical experts have said the fetal tissue research ultimately could benefit patients with Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, Huntington’s disease, leukemia, spinal cord injuries and a growing list of other conditions.

Fetal tissue is unusually adaptive to transplantation. Scientists hope that transplanted fetal cells will take over the functions of the diseased or destroyed cells. Several researchers, funded by private money, already have transplanted fetal cells successfully into the brains of Parkinson’s patients, hoping to alleviate their symptoms.

But opponents of abortion have maintained that fetal tissue, because it is obtained from an “immoral” procedure, is tainted and should not be used for research or medical treatment, no matter how life-saving it may prove.

Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), ranking Republican on the health subcommittee, argued against the bill, saying that use of fetal tissue for medical purposes was the beginning of “an era of very dangerous consequences to the whole issue of affirming life and its right to exist.”

Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) said that “the more you read of this (fetal research), the more the word grisly surfaces.”

“Is Frankenstein becoming an acceptable model so that we kill people (to) get their organs?” the conservative lawmaker added.

In addition to the fetal provision, the Bush Administration has criticized other parts of the bill, including several programs related to women’s health.

Among the women’s health measures is one that would establish an office within the NIH to ensure increased participation of women in clinical trials, and a $50-million increase for research into breast and ovarian cancer and osteoporosis, a debilitating bone condition.

The White House has said it objects to Congress telling the NIH how to conduct its clinical trials and opposes designating a set amount of money for research into specific diseases.

The anti-abortion movement, although opposed to the legislation, did not actively lobby against it. One congressional source, who works for an anti-abortion lawmaker, speculated that anti-abortion forces are confident of a presidential veto and therefore had devoted their energy to fighting an overturn of rules that forbid discussing abortion in federally funded family planning clinics.

At the same time, groups representing numerous diseases lobbied heavily in favor of the legislation. “I think members had a hard time saying no to people who are suffering from these diseases,” Waxman said.

Anne Udall, the 37-year-old daughter of former Rep. Morris K. Udall (D-Ariz.), was among those who lobbied numerous lawmakers in recent weeks seeking support for the bill. Her father, who resigned last spring after three decades in the House, is suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

“Certainly, those who have watched the debilitating effects of the disease on Mo have got to have a far greater awareness of how horrible Parkinson’s can be,” she said. “I’m sure their knowing Mo has given a human angle to the bill and has made their decision easier--or harder, depending on where they are.”

The California delegation voted mostly along party lines. Frank Riggs (R-Occidental) and Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield) joined Democrats in voting for the legislation. The rest of the Republican delegation’s votes went against the measure. Tom Campbell (R-Palo Alto) did not vote.

The bill was, in fact, supported by several strong opponents of abortion, including House Majority Whip David E. Bonoir (D-Mich.), and Reps. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.), Dale E. Kildee (D-Mich.), Terry L. Bruce (D-Ill.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Jim Slattery (D-Kan.).

Upton and Bruce circulated a letter to other House members two weeks ago, identifying themselves as abortion foes and urging their colleagues to vote for the bill.

“This is a question of being pro-research and pro-health,” they wrote, “ . . . (and) of helping millions of Americans who suffer from devastating and disabling diseases and providing them with their best hope for treatment and cure.”

The House approved an amendment sponsored by Upton that would prohibit the sale or donation of fetal tissue from induced abortions in the private and public sectors. The measure is intended to remove the incentive for having an abortion solely to designate fetal tissue for research.