According to the Washington Times, the Obama administration will be ending the Bush era Embryo Adoption Awareness Campaign in 2013.
The program provided funding for adoption-awareness for the children, known as “snowflake babies”, who were formerly stored human embryos at fertility clinics.
Some have argued that these embryos should be used for scientific research, such as stem cell research. But Congressman Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, is a strong supporter of the pro-life program. He said at a 2009 press conference on the subject:
“Assertions that leftover embryos are better off dead so that their stem cells can be derived is dehumanizing and cheapens human life. There is no such thing as leftover human life. Ask the snowflake children— cryogenically frozen embryos who were adopted—their lives are precious and priceless.”
His words were echoed by President Bush in a 2006 White House event featuring snowflake babies and their families: “The children here today remind us that there is no such thing as a spare embryo. These lives are not raw material to be exploited, but gifts.”
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council is on record stating:
“These families highlight the essential fact that human embryos are human beings deserving the full love and protections granted any child”
“We hear so often in the debate over embryonic stem cells that the harvesting of stem cells from embryos does not destroy a human life, and yet these Snowflake children prove otherwise”
The program, as reported by the Christian Post, cost the federal government a paltry $1.9 Million a year, helped lead to the births of over 1,900 children between 2004-2009, according to Dr. Reg Finger, director of the Embryo Donation Services Center, which was also created with federal grant funding.
Pro-life advocates see this latest development as a reminder of President Obama’s dedication to the progressive left’s abortion agenda.
Mailee Smith, staff counsel at Americans United for Life, agrees with this view. “Why would the Obama administration cut $2 million for adoption awareness, but keep $1 million a day for Planned Parenthood?” she asked according to the Washington Times.
“What people disagree about is the solution for these embryos,” she said, and if there is no support for embryo adoption, “what we’re seeing is the elimination of the moral solution.”
