Letter To The Editor - Billion Dollar Industry
/Op- Ed
by Dr. Ruddy
Governor Murphy’s abortion bill certainly does not address an unmet need for more abortions in
New Jersey given that the State performs, on average, more abortions than any other state in the country - 48,000 in 2019. Neither can his proposal be seen as a ‘jobs’ bill, given that the reimbursement for an abortion is, on average, $700. Even if the number of abortions in the State were increased by, say, 20% (i.e., 10,000), the average overhead costs of the practice of medicine are ~ 40%; therefore, the total net profit ($420 per abortion) would be somewhere in the rather paltry range of $4.2 million. Therefore, this is definitely not a jobs bill.
Where, then, is the money to be made in the Governor’s abortion scheme? The simple answer is, the money is in fetal tissue.
Yes, it’s a federal crime to sell or purchase freshly aborted fetal tissue. In fact, dealers of fetal tissue can only charge a ‘shipping and handling’ fee, which amounts to about $60 per fetus. So, where is the fortune that an investment banker might hope to make in the abortion business? A tiny vial of fetal liver stem cells goes for a whopping $24,000 - five years ago.
How much, you ask, for a heart, two lungs, a spleen, a pancreas, a brain, a spinal cord, two ovaries, two testicles, small intestine, and all that baby skin (which is used to grow skin grafts for diabetic ulcers)? The answer is a fortune: more than you can count, or trace.
Additionally, the Board of Medical Examiners has proposed changes in the regulations that govern abortion services so that every effort has been made to the lower overhead costs: non-physicians can perform them, in offices, on demand, throughout the full term of pregnancy when fetal organs are fully formed, to any woman (in State or out) who asks.
The Governor would allow these women to have their abortions essentially for free, with copays, deductibles, or coinsurance waived. However, insurance companies would be required to cover these full-term abortions.
Further, medical practitioners certified to perform abortions would be forced to do so or risk losing their licenses and jobs. There is not doubt that the costs of providing these ‘free abortions’ would be passed on to the consumer by way of increased premiums, copays, deductibles, and coinsurance. In fact, the financing of the Governor’s abortion bill is nothing less than a transfer of wealth passed through insurance companies to the consumer to benefit exactly two interest groups - those that perform abortions (especially, Planned Parenthood) and the fetal tissue harvesting and resale industry.
Taken as a whole, Governor Murphy’s Fetal Tissue Harvesting Development Plan has one objective, and that is to relieve the severe reduction in the supply chain of fetal tissue in the United States that has resulted from the fact that 30-40% of all medically-induced abortions (effected via abortion pills prescribed to the mother) now take place at home: the fetus is lost down the drain. Further, many states have passed laws prohibiting abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected (early in the first trimester) thus further reducing the inventory of fetal tissue that feeds a billion dollar industry: the National Institutes of Health spent $100 million last year funding fetal research. God only knows how much private industry has at stake.
Recall that President Biden lifted the ban prohibiting federal funds to support Planned Parenthood abortion services in other countries, which directly results in the importation of fetal tissue into the country via the U.S. Customs Office. And now, Governor Murphy proposes a bill that would make the Garden State the most fertile ground in America for the harvesting of fetal tissue, especially in Black and Hispanic communities where 60% of all abortions take place.
As Catholics, we are compelled to love those who persecute us, so we must pray for Governor Murphy and those who support his Fetal Tissue Harvesting Development Plan, feigned as “reproductive freedom.” However, it may not be wise to vote for him.
