Introducing the Society for Ethical Research

The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) is the abortion training capital of the world. It is also a world leader in pro-abortion legislative advocacy. Most disturbingly, it is an essential link in the supply chain of human fetal organs used in experimentation, as revealed by the Center for Medical Progress undercover investigation.

UCSF is the largest practitioner of non-digoxin late-term abortions in the country. If you are part of the pro-life community, you may have heard advocates talk about “lethal injection abortions” or “heart attack abortions.” Those are references to digoxin. Abortionists inject digoxin into their victims to cause death by heart attacks, after which the dead children’s bodies are removed. UCSF is unusual because it intentionally does not use digoxin, and their motive is appalling: they want to avoid poisoning the fetus and thus compromising the fetal tissue.

To kill a late-term baby without digoxin, UCSF has two alternatives. One is live dismemberment (also known as disarticulation and evacuation, or D&E), in which abortion is accomplished by severing the baby’s arms, legs, and head; this leaves intact sections from which the desired organs can be harvested. The second option is to induce labor for an in vivo – literally meaning “in the living” – procedure. Dissection of the intact fetal organs occurs afterward. According to the Society for Family Planning, up to half of labor induction abortions without digoxin can result in the infant being born alive.

UCSF conducts these procedures on healthy fetuses from gestational ages of 18 to 24 weeks. Many of these fetuses are capable of feeling pain and also of surviving outside the womb. Even most pro-choice people, including a majority of women, Democrats, and independents, reject UCSF’s pro-abortion extremism.

UCSF has failed to provide basic transparency concerning their fetal organ harvesting practices. In particular, it has utterly failed to comply with the local Freedom of Information Act. On July 3, 2019, Pro-Life San Francisco submitted a public records request to UCSF. The California Public Records Act states that “nothing in this chapter shall be construed to permit an agency to delay or obstruct the inspection or copying of public records,” and communications with UCSF show they had until about the end of October to comply with the request. There has been zero response to their follow-up inquiry from November. Additionally, UCSF does not make their fetal death protocol public. Without this information, how can we know if UCSF is in compliance with the Born Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002?

Above: SER activists project a D&E abortion procedure diagram onto a UCSF building

UCSF’s continued stonewalling and obfuscation has led us to a critical impasse. We feel that this situation calls direct action. Accordingly, Bay Area advocates have founded a new organization known as the Society for Ethical Research. We are a non-violent direct action group committed to the defunding of UCSF’s fetal harvesting program and the abolition of fetal organ harvesting nationwide.

Our work consists of applying daily pressure to UCSF and to their primary sources of funding, such as the University of California Board of Regents and the National Institutes of Health. We’re demanding transparency, we’re demanding safeguards, and we’re demanding ethical research now. Our main legislative goals include the passage of the Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act (H.R.573), the Safe RESEARCH Act (H.R.437) and the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (H.R. 962). We also calling upon the Department of Health and Human Services to build on their previous cancellation of one UCSF fetal research contract, revoke all fetal experimentation funding nationwide, and replace these programs with ethical life-affirming alternatives.

The Society for Ethical Research has a special place in the pro-life movement as a whole. We draw inspiration from the heroes of the civil rights movement, who did their greatest work in the toughest, most unlikely of places—the Deep South. Likewise, for a movement that seeks to rehumanize the unborn, it is vital to we have a presence in the place they are most dehumanized—in the most pro-choice city in America, San Francisco.

We need all of your support in this important fight. If you’re interested in learning more please visit our website at sernow.org or follow our social media pages @ Society for Ethical Research on Facebook, @ s.e.r.now on Instagram, and @SERnow on Twitter. If you’re interested in joining our team, we are currently accepting new members. Our internship includes free room and board and a monthly stipend. If you’re interested, please fill out an application.

Five years ago, David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress brought the ghoulish sale of abortion victims’ organs to the nation’s attention. What started with David is now a growing chorus, expanding every day. I am David. You are David. We are all David. Together we can ensure that his courage was not in vain, and together we can see his work toward the abolition of fetal experimentation completed.

[Today’s guest post is by Nick Reynosa. If you would like to contribute a guest post, email your submission to info@secularprolife.org for consideration.]