Suing for Human Fetal Tissue Research Records

[INSIDE JW]

PRESIDENT TRUMP REAPPOINTS TOM FITTON TO DC JUDICIAL COMMISSION

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I am pleased to announce that President Trump has reappointed me to
the District of Columbia Commission on Judicial Disabilities and
Tenure
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for a five-year term. He initially
appointed me to the commission in 2020. I issued this statement about
the reappointment:

> Thank you, President Trump, for reappointing me to the District of
> Columbia Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure. I am
> honored and humbled by your confidence. This important
> responsibility is of course in addition to my duties as Judicial
> Watch president. I look forward to my continued work with my fellow
> commissioners to ‘maintain public confidence in an independent,
> impartial, fair, and qualified judiciary, and to enforce the high
> standards of conduct judges must adhere to both on and off the
> bench.’ Our nation’s capital needs the best possible courts,
> especially in light of the public safety concerns that have gained
> national attention.

The District of Columbia Commission on Judicial Disabilities and
Tenure was established by Congress to review complaints of misconduct
against judges of the District of Columbia courts. The commission’s
authority includes reappointment evaluations (sent to the president)
of associate judges and performance and fitness reviews of senior
judges.

The commission
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has “the
authority to remove a judge for willful misconduct in office, for
willful and persistent failure to perform judicial duties, and for
conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, or which brings
the judicial office into disrepute. The Commission also has the
authority to retire a judge involuntarily if the Commission determines
that the judge suffers from a mental or physical disability which is
or is likely to become permanent and which prevents, or seriously
interferes with, the proper performance of duties. In addition, the
Commission may, under appropriate circumstances, censure or reprimand
a judge publicly.”

JUDICIAL WATCH SUES HHS FOR HUMAN FETAL TISSUE RESEARCH RECORDS

Americans have a right to know basic information about the
taxpayer-funded abortion industrial complex. As long as the government
continues to fund these gruesome projects, we will work to expose
them.

We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit
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against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for
records from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) related to a
federally funded human fetal tissue research program at the University
of Pittsburgh (_Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services_
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_(No.
1:25-cv-04498)).

We sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after
the National Institutes of Health, a component of Health and Human
Services, failed to comply with a May 30, 2025, FOIA request for:

> All documents and communications of officials in the Office of
> Extramural Research concerning the Final Research Performance
> Progress Report (FRPPR) for the GUDMAP program at the University of
> Pittsburgh (Project Number U24-DK110791-01).

The National Institutes of Health’s Office of Extramural Research
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provides guidance to institutes in research and training programs
conducted through extramural (grant, contract, cooperative agreement)
programs.

The GenitoUrinary (reproductive and urinary) Development Molecular
Anatomy Project (GUDMAP
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is a research consortium that receives funding from the National
Institutes of Health. The abstract for project number1U24DK110791-01
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is titled
“University of Pittsburgh as the GUDMAP Tissue Hub and Collection
Site.” The fiscal year 2016 grant for $600,000 supported the
procurement, processing, and distribution of human fetal tissues. The
abstract states in part:

> The Health Sciences Tissue Bank (HSTB) at the University of
> Pittsburgh has been involved in human tissue procurement for over 18
> years … HSTB has an established program accruing fetal tissues.
> The fetal tissue IRB has been in place since 2005. HSTB has the
> infrastructure for dissecting specimens and collecting different
> tissue types. In this calendar year, we have disbursed over 300
> fresh samples collected from 77 cases. The collections can be
> significantly ramped up as material could have been accrued from as
> many as 725 cases last year. We have preliminary data showing that
> we can isolate the human urogenital system (kidneys, ureters and
> bladders) from various developmental ages (6-24 weeks). We have
> produced publication quality images of these genitourinary organs
> (including kidneys and bladder) and have also been able to isolate
> and expand cells from various genitourinary organs.

In August 2021, we and the Center for Medical Progress uncovered
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Health
and Human Services records that revealed nearly $3 million in federal
funds were spent on the University of Pittsburgh’s quest to become a
“tissue hub” for human fetal tissue ranging from six to 42 weeks
gestation.

In July 2023, we filed two _amicus curiae_
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(friend of the
court) briefs to the Supreme Court of the United States in support of
The Center for Medical Progress
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(CMP) and its
founder Daleiden, asking for review of the Ninth Circuit Court’s
affirmation of a monetary award against CMP (_Center for Medical
Progress et al. v Planned Parent Hood et al_
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(22-1168)), the other asks for review of an injunction granted to the
National Abortion Federation that prevents CMP from publishing more
abortion-related videos (_Center for Medical Progress et al. v
National Abortion Federation_
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(22-1135)).

In April 2022, we obtained records
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revealing that the Associate Senior Vice Chancellor for Science
Strategy and Planning in the Health Sciences at the University of
Pittsburgh, Dr. Jeremy Berg, contacted then-Director of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), Francis Collins requesting help to combat,
“efforts to undermine important science using fetal tissue.”
Additionally, the records included a scientific report containing
information about grafting human scalp and other tissues onto mice.

In September 2021, we uncovered records
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from
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) involving “humanized
mice
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research with human fetal heads, organs and tissue, including
communications and contracts with human fetal tissue provider Advanced
Bioscience Resources (ABR). Most of the records are communications and
related attachments between Perrin Larton
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a procurement
manager for ABR, and research veterinary medical officer Dr. Kristina
Howard
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of the
Food and Drug Administration.

In April 2021, we obtained records
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from the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) showing the agency spent tens of thousands
of taxpayer dollars to buy human fetal tissue from California-based
Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR). The tissue was used in creating
“humanized mice” to test “biologic drug products.”

In March 2021, we sued
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the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on behalf of the Center
for Medical Progress for grant applications related to the use of
human fetal tissue (_Center for Medical Progress v. U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services_
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(No. 1:21-cv-00642)).

In June 2020, we uncovered records
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showing the FDA
between 2012 and 2018 entered into eight contracts worth $96,370 with
Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR) to acquire “fresh and never
frozen” tissue from 1st and 2nd trimester aborted fetuses for use in
creating “humanized mice” for ongoing research.

In February 2020, we received records
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from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) showing that the agency
paid thousands of dollars to a California-based firm to purchase
organs from aborted human fetuses to create “humanized mice” for
HIV research.

JUSTICE DEPT. SUED FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD, HUMAN FETAL TISSUE RECORDS

The sale of human fetal tissue is a grisly business at odds with the
values of most Americans, and transparency is the minimum requirement.

We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit
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against the U.S. Department of Justice for records of communications
between senior officials and key members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary
Committee concerning Planned Parenthood, abortion, and the transfer of
human fetal tissue (_Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of
Justice_
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(No.1:25-cv-04497)).

We sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after
the Justice Department failed to respond to May 30, 2025, FOIA
requests to both the Office of Legislative Affairs and the Office of
the Attorney General for all communications from January 1, 2019, to
December 31, 2020:

> *
> Between officials in the Office of Legislative Affairs and Sen.
> Chuck Grassley, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and/or the Senate Judiciary
> Committee concerning Planned Parenthood, abortion, and/or the
> transfer of human fetal tissue.
>
> *
> Between then-Attorney General Bill Barr and Sen. Chuck Grassley,
> Sen. Lindsey Graham, and/or any official on the Senate Judiciary
> Committee concerning Planned Parenthood, abortion, and/or the
> transfer of human fetal tissue.

In June 2019, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary issued a
letter
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to Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray, following up on
Grassley’s 2016 referral of eight organizations for investigation
and potential prosecution for the alleged sale of human fetal tissue
and inquiring as to whether the FBI had taken any action on the
criminal referrals. The FBI has never confirmed publicly whether it
investigated Planned Parenthood, or if it did, what it found.

During a September 2019 hearing
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at the San Francisco Superior Court, David Daleiden of the Center for
Medical Progress provided testimony regarding his release in 2015 of
11 undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing
— and in some instances displaying — the harvesting and sale of
aborted fetal organs and tissue. A non-physician who performed
surgical abortions for Planned Parenthood testified that she regularly
provided fetal tissue from abortions and was aware of financial
exchanges with StemExpress
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In April 2020, invoices confirmed
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Planned Parenthood charged StemExpress $55 per “usable” organ —
not simply for transport fees, as Planned Parenthood had previously
claimed.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BLASTED FOR ENDING $10 MILLION TOILET PROJECT IN
MADAGASCAR

When you close the spigot of money flowing from U.S. taxpayers, people
will complain to the press, as is the case with a toilet project in
Madagascar. Our _Corruption Chronicles_ blog has the story
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> Among the many wasteful foreign aid programs the Trump
> administration eliminated from the U.S. government’s generously
> funded global health strategy is a $10 million venture to provide an
> African nation with toilets after a smaller American-funded effort
> to help villagers in the country build toilets with local materials
> failed. The multi-million-dollar remedy, part of Obama’s mission
> to end extreme poverty, focused on sanitation by installing special
> toilets, known as MVP1, in the east African island of Madagascar.
> Over the weekend a mainstream newspaper published a lengthy hit
> piece
>
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> chastising the Trump administration for eliminating the costly
> African toilet endeavor funded by the United States Agency for
> International Development (USAID), the bloated State Department
> offshoot that annually disbursed tens of billions of dollars with
> little oversight or accountability before the president dismantled
> it. Now, “only the rich can afford a toilet,” in Madagascar the
> recently published newspaper story declares as if that should be a
> concern for American taxpayers.
>
> It marks the latest of extensive mainstream media coverage
> criticizing Trump’s razing of USAID—and questionable programs
> like the African toilets it bankrolled—while conveniently failing
> to report the pervasive fraud, waste and corruption that long
> gripped the foreign aid agency. Judicial Watch has exposed the
> crisis for years, reporting on a multitude of reckless USAID
> projects, including Kamala Harris’ failed multi-billion-dollar
> effort
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to
> curb “irregular migration” from three targeted countries known
> as the northern triangle—El Salvador, Guatemala, and
> Honduras—and millions of dollars to promote leftwing billionaire
> George Soros’ radical globalist agenda in Latin America as well as
> a fruitless Clinton-backed port and power plant in Haiti. Judicial
> Watch has also taken legal action to uncover details about some of
> the agency’s problematic secret operations. In 2024 we sued
>
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>
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for records
> involving $27 million in Gaza grants that went to “Miscellaneous
> Foreign Awardees.” The Biden administration claimed the recipients
> could not be disclosed because the agency’s workers could be put
> at risk by Israel. Earlier this year Judicial Watch filed a Freedom
> of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit
>
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against
> USAID for failing to provide records about fraud and abuse tied to
> American aid money sent to Ukraine.
>
> The multi-million-dollar African toilet project is just a shred of
> the broader problem, but worth noting because it provides the
> famously leftist establishment media with material to continue
> trashing the administration for redirecting its priorities involving
> global health strategies. Rather than dubious costly projects like
> toilets, the new focus is on preventing infectious disease outbreaks
> from reaching American shores, saving lives and preventing babies
> from being born with HIV/AIDS rather than sanitation in third-world
> countries. “Our global health programs have become inefficient and
> wasteful,” the State Department’s latest America First Global
> Health Strategy
>
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> reveals. The 40-page document outlines a comprehensive vision that
> requires co-investment from recipient governments and a path to
> decreased dependency on assistance from Uncle Sam though other donor
> nations, such as Germany, Britain, Sweden and France, have followed
> the U.S. lead in drastically reducing foreign aid.
>
> The recent newspaper article criticizes the Trump administration for
> failing to mention sanitation from its new global health strategy
> because it excludes projects like the African toilet venture.
> “Madagascar’s government, recently toppled in a military coupe,
> has a punishingly long list of problems to deal with and spends just
> a tiny fraction of its budget on sanitation,” the news story
> states, adding that “studies have shown widespread contamination
> of Madagascar’s drinking water, the result of feces buried in pits
> seeping into the ground.” The article does acknowledge that USAID
> paid $100,000 to clean up waste in Madagascar before cutting the
> MVP1 program, though part of the money was used to offer residents a
> free upgrade to an MVP2 toilet. The U.S. will continue helping
> impoverished African nations, the State Department assures, but the
> focus of the multi-billion-dollar funding will be on combatting
> malaria and maternal-child health as well as global health security.
> The administration will give Madagascar more than $134 million in
> assistance under a bilateral global health agreement
>
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> announced last week. The deal also includes over a billion dollars
> for Ethiopia, $106 million for Botswana and $30 million for Sierra
> Leone.

Until next week,



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