Anti-abortion faith leaders support use of COVID-19 vaccines

In a growing consensus, religious leaders at the forefront of the anti-abortion movement in the United States are telling their followers that the main vaccines available to fight COVID-19 are acceptable to take, given their distant and indirect connection to derived cell lines. aborted fetuses.

An outspoken Dallas-based abortion nemesis, Southern Baptist mega-church pastor Robert Jeffress called vaccines a “gift from God.”

“Asking God for help but then refusing the vaccine makes no more sense than calling 911 when your house is on fire, but refusing to allow firefighters to enter,” Jeffress said by E-mail. “There is no legitimate religious reason to refuse to be vaccinated.”

The Reverend Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, also celebrated their development.

“I will take it not only for what I hope is for the good of my own health, but also for others,” he said on his website.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which says tackling abortion is its “preeminent” priority, said last month that getting the coronavirus vaccine “should be understood as an act of charity to others. members of our community, ”according to a statement. by the chairmen of its doctrine commission and its pro-life activities commission.

The bishops said it was morally acceptable for Catholics to use one of two vaccines approved for use in the United States – manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna – despite a “remote connection to morally compromised cell lines.” This involved the use of fetal cell lines for laboratory tests to confirm the effectiveness of vaccines.

Another leading vaccine, made by AstraZeneca and approved for use in Britain and some other countries, is “more morally compromised” and should be avoided if there are alternatives available, the bishops said.

Coinciding with the USCCB, four Colorado bishops issued their own statement taking a somewhat more negative stance on AstraZeneca, describing it as “a morally invalid option.”

AstraZeneca used a cell line known as HEK293 to develop its vaccine. According to the Oxford University team that developed it, the original HEK293 cells were taken from the kidney of an aborted fetus in 1973, but the cells in use today are clones of the original cells. and are not the original fetal tissue.

As the first vaccines approached approval last year, some Catholic bishops have warned they could be morally unacceptable. Among them was Bishop Joseph Brennan of Fresno, Calif., Who urged Catholics not to jump on the “vaccine train.”

He then changed his position, saying that because of the risks to the health of individuals and communities, “Catholics may make an ethical decision for serious reasons to use these vaccines.

Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, also questioned vaccines, who described any use of aborted fetuses in vaccine development as evil and said he will not take any of the vaccines currently available.

“The Church has stated that under certain circumstances it is permissible to receive the vaccine and I do not dispute that,” he said via email. “The Church has also said that we should strongly call for morally produced vaccines, and I urge those taking the vaccine to join this mission and demand change.”

Strickland encourages donations to the John Paul II Institute for Medical Research, which supports research aimed at developing what he calls “ethical” cell lines – using adult stem cells – that would be used in the manufacture of vaccines and other medical therapies.

Some other openly anti-abortion bishops have embraced the vaccines.

“As a Christian engages in the world, it is impossible in many contexts to completely avoid cooperating with moral evil,” tweeted Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island. “The Church, on many levels, has said it is morally acceptable to receive the vaccines currently available. I agree.”

Bishop Richard Stika of Knoxville, Tennessee, said he had no qualms about getting the vaccine.

“I just hope they don’t implant a microchip in my arm to know when I’m cheating on my diet,” he joked on Twitter.

Among Protestant evangelical leaders, who generally hold strong anti-abortion views, there has been relatively little anti-vaccine rhetoric, according to Reverend Russell Moore, who heads the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“I couldn’t think of an evangelical pastor who said, ‘Don’t get vaccinated,’ he said.

A more notable challenge for pastors, Moore said, is to counter unfounded anti-vaccine conspiracy theories adopted by some members of their congregations or communities – for example, vaccines would alter a recipient’s DNA or secretly implant. a microchip.

Globally, the Vatican has issued guidelines broadly similar to those of the American bishops, declaring that it is morally acceptable for Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines based on research using cells derived from aborted fetuses.

One difference: he did not name or give details on specific vaccines. The Vatican plans to use the Pfizer vaccine from this week for employees and their families, and Pope Francis – in an interview with an Italian broadcaster that aired this weekend – said he had an appointment to meet get vaccinated.

The Vatican has suggested that it was wrong to refuse a vaccine on the sole basis of objecting to abortion, because refusal “may also pose a risk to others.”

Nicanor Austrianaco, a molecular biologist and Catholic priest who teaches at universities in the United States and the Philippines, said the Vatican has correctly addressed religious concerns about vaccines indirectly linked to research using aborted fetal cells.

“The moral evil envisioned here” took place in the 1970s, when the original cell line was created, Austrianaco said, “and he’s far away”.

G. Kevin Donovan, a professor of pediatrics at Georgetown University who runs its Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, said the leaders of his Catholic faith could not have been “clearer.”

“The advantage of Catholics is that… the highest levels of authority made it clear that it was a morally acceptable thing to do,” Donovan said.

In Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, a Muslim religious council has been included in that country’s vaccine procurement process to ensure that a product is halal or acceptable for use under the Islamic law. In the past, the board has ruled that certain vaccines against other diseases are unacceptable because they use gelatin of porcine origin.

But on Friday, the council gave its approval for China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, paving the way for its distribution in Indonesia.