Helping Science, May Hurt Pro-Life Relations
President Obama kept a campaign promise Monday by overturning President Bush's restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. But the stem cell executive order — and a companion presidential memo intended to rebuild the wall between politics and science — aren't helping the administration's efforts to reach out to the pro-life community.
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STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Renee Montagne is away. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. President Obama's move on stem cell research may have had a side effect. The president lifted restrictions yesterday on embryonic stem cell research. He also signed a memorandum seeking to separate science and politics. As pleasing as those moves were to many scientists, they did not help the president's efforts to reach out to those who disagree with him on abortion and other cultural issues. NPR's Julie Rovner reports.
JULIE ROVNER: The president made his case for embryonic stem cell research before a crowd of scientists and health advocates in the White House East Room.
President BARACK OBAMA: The majority of Americans from across the political spectrum and from all backgrounds and beliefs have come to a consensus that we should pursue this research, that the potential it offers is great and with proper guidelines and strict oversight, the perils can be avoided. That is a conclusion with which I agree.
ROVNER: Harold Varmus, who ran the National Institutes of Health in the Clinton administration and now advises President Obama on science policy, says it's a sea change for members of the research community.
Dr. HAROLD VARMUS (Science Advisor to the President; Former Director, National Institutes of Health): All scientists feel that one hand was tied behind our backs eight years ago, and suddenly that hand is freed.
ROVNER: Mr. Obama went onto talk about the second document he signed, a memo to ensure, quote, "scientific integrity." He said promoting science is about more than just providing money.
Pres. OBAMA: It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda, and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.
ROVNER: Someone who says she experienced ideology overpowering science during the Bush administration was sitting in the audience. Susan Wood resigned in protest in 2005 as the top Women's Health official at the Food and Drug Administration. She says she wasn't privy to who decided what.
Dr. SUSAN WOOD (Former FDA Commissioner, Women's Health): But what I do know is that science was trumped when FDA faced the decision about approving emergency contraception over the counter. It was not good science. It was not good medicine, and it wasn't good for American women.
ROVNER: FDA scientific staff had recommended that the drug be approved for non-prescription sale. Eventually it was, but only for those over age 18. But there are those who think that the Bush administration was correct to rein in the recommendations of some of its scientists, particularly when it comes to issues like stem cell research. Douglas Johnson is with the National Right to Life Committee.
Mr. DOUGLAS JOHNSON (National Right to Life Committee): There are in place an array of protections for human subjects that have grown up over 40 years, and these were found to be necessary because of the kinds of abuses that occur when you have specialists who may be highly qualified in their fields but get focused on a particular goal, the end comes to justify the means and they undertake the uses of human subjects in ways that are unethical and that affect society as a whole.
ROVNER: A bigger question is whether President Obama is moving more firmly into the abortion rights camp after working so hard to chart a middle ground in the reproductive rights arena. Yesterday's actions were the administration's third related to reproductive health. In January, President Obama restored funding to international family planning groups that perform or promote abortion. Last week, he proposed to repeal regulations that let health workers refuse to perform procedures that violate their beliefs. But both of those moves were announced with little fanfare, so as not to antagonize those on the other side of the polarized abortion debate. That wasn't the case yesterday. But Delaware Republican Congressman Mike Castle, a strong supporter of embryonic stem cell research, says not to read too much into the president's sudden public stance.
Representative MIKE CASTLE (Republican, Delaware): I don't know if this president's become increasingly pro-choice. He's never really been anything but pro-choice.
ROVNER: Douglas Johnson at National Right-to-Life agreed with that assessment.
Mr. JOHNSON: The common ground that Barack Obama seeks with the pro-life movement is the burial ground.
ROVNER: And pro-lifers are gearing up for still more battles to come. The annual spending bills Congress must pass later this year include more than a dozen abortion-related restrictions. President Obama will have to decide which ones, if any, to keep and which ones to jettison. All are sure to cause a fight.
Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.
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Obama Lifts Restrictions On Stem Cell Research
President Barack Obama removed restrictions on the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research put in place by the Bush administration, fulfilling a controversial campaign promise. He also issued on Monday a presidential memorandum intended to further separate politics and science.
"Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident," Obama said Monday. "They result from painstaking and costly research; from years of lonely trial and error, much of which never bears fruit; and from a government willing to support that work," he said.
New Momentum For Stem Cell Research
The stem cell restrictions, imposed by former President George W. Bush, limited federal spending for embryonic stem cell research to a small number of cell lines created before Aug. 9, 2001.
Bush's restrictions were strongly supported by the anti-abortion community, which contends that destroying human embryos is morally wrong. But researchers say many of the early cell lines have major drawbacks. Scientists have created hundreds of other cell lines since then, which have been off-limits to researchers who receive federal dollars.
Embryonic stem cell research is believed to hold the key for better treatments and possible cures for diseases, including diabetes and paralysis. The cells have the potential to turn into any cell in the human body, which is what makes them so promising to researchers. Proponents, from former first lady Nancy Reagan to the late actor Christopher Reeve, have long called for ending the limits on federal spending.
But the research is highly controversial because embryonic cells are derived from human embryos, which are destroyed in the process.
And while the new order will allow researchers to use federal funds to work with new cell lines, a legislative ban on the use of federal dollars to create new stem cell lines remains in place.
The president said that he could not guarantee more research would lead to new treatments and cures, but that opening up new research was worth the gamble to "make up for lost ground."
The National Institute of Health now has 120 days to come up with new guidelines for the use of stem cells, which Obama said will include prohibiting the use of cloning for human reproduction.
Most research institutes are likely to wait to allow researchers to use federal funds for new stem cells until the federal guidelines are announced. Researchers will also still be subject to state regulations and the guidelines of their individual research institutions, which may be stricter than the federal requirements.
A Controversial Decision
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) has been working to overturn the Bush administration restrictions since they were first imposed. The next step, she said, is for Congress to write federal standards for the research funding into law, "in large part because we don't want to see this become a pingpong ball between different administrations like the international family planning issues and other issues have become." Those policies have switched back and forth depending on which party is in control of the White House.
Opponents of embryonic stem cell research funding are already crying foul. Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) issued a statement asking Obama to "re-evaluate" his decision. "The president has rolled back important protections for innocent life, further dividing our nation at a time when we need greater unity to tackle the challenges before us," Rep. Boehner said.
Virginia Republican Rep. Eric Cantor said on CNN that "federal funding of embryonic stem cell research can bring on embryo harvesting, perhaps even human cloning."
'Restoring Scientific Integrity'
Obama also signed a presidential memorandum on Monday directing the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to "develop a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government decision-making." The memorandum, Obama explained, would ensure that his administration's policies would be based on "the soundest science," and that scientific advisers be appointed "based on their credentials and experience, not their politics or ideology."
DeGette says that during the Bush administration, scientific policy was often dictated by things other than scientific evidence. "It started with global climate change, where the Bush administration announced they really didn't believe it was true, contrary to the scientific evidence. And then it moved all the way through (to) abstinence-only sex education, stem cell research and many other issues," she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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