In a growing consensus, religious leaders at the forefront of the anti-abortion movement in the United States are telling their followers that the leading vaccines available to combat COVID-19 are acceptable given their remote and indirect connection to lines of cells derived from aborted fetuses.
An outspoken enemy of abortion based in Dallas, Southern Baptist megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress, has called the vaccines a “gift from God.”
“Asking God for help but then refusing the vaccine makes as much sense as calling the emergency number when your house is on fire, but refusing to let the firefighters in,” Jeffress said via email. “There is no legitimate faith-based reason for refusing the vaccine.”
Reverend Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has also celebrated their development.
“I will use it not only for what I hope is good for my own health, but also for others,” he said on his website.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which says fighting abortion is its ‘top’ priority, said last month that vaccination against the coronavirus “ should be understood as an act of charity towards other members of our community, ” said a statement . by the chairpersons of the Doctrine Committee and the Pro-Life Activities Committee.
The bishops said it is morally acceptable for Catholics to use one of two vaccines approved for use in the US – made by Pfizer and Moderna – despite an “external connection to morally compromised cell lines.” This involved the use of fetal cell lines for laboratory tests to confirm the effectiveness of the vaccines.
Another leading vaccine, made by AstraZeneca and approved for use in Britain and some other countries, is “morally compromised” and should be avoided if alternatives are available, the bishops said.
Coinciding with the USCCB, four bishops in Colorado issued their own statement take a somewhat more negative stance on AstraZeneca and describe it as ‘not a morally valid 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 now are clones of the original cells and are not the original fetal tissue.
As the first vaccines were nearing approval last year, some Catholic bishops warned they might be morally unacceptable. Among them was Bishop Joseph Brennan of Fresno, California, who urged Catholics not to jump on the “vaccine bandwagon.”
He later changed his position, saying that because of health risks to individuals and communities, “Catholics may ethically decide for serious reasons to use such vaccines.”
Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, who also questioned the vaccines, has portrayed any use of aborted fetuses in vaccine development as malignant and says he will not use any of the currently available vaccines.
“The church has said 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 we must make a strong case for morally produced vaccines, and I encourage those taking the vaccine to join that mission and demand change.”
Strickland encourages donations to the John Paul II Medical Research Institute, which supports research aimed at developing what it calls “ethical” cell lines – using adult stem cells – that would be used in the production of vaccines and other medical therapies.
Some other outspoken anti-abortion bishops have embraced the vaccines.
“Since a Christian is concerned with the world, it is impossible in many situations to fully cooperate with moral evil,” tweeted Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island. “The Church has said on several levels that it is morally acceptable to receive the vaccines that are currently available. I agree.”
Bishop Richard Stika of Knoxville, Tennessee, said he had no qualms about getting vaccinated.
“I just hope they don’t implant a microchip in my arm to check when I’m eating falsely,” he joked on Twitter.
Among Protestant evangelical leaders, who generally have strong anti-abortion views, there is relatively little anti-vaccine rhetoric, said Reverend Russell Moore, who heads the public policy department of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“I wouldn’t be able to think of an evangelical pastor who says, ‘Don’t get vaccinated,’” he said.
A more notable challenge for pastors, Moore said, is counteracting baseless anti-vaccine conspiracy theories embraced by some members of their congregations or communities – for example, that the vaccines would alter a recipient’s DNA or covertly implant a microchip.
At the global level, the Vatican has issued guidelines broadly similar to those of the American bishops, stating that it is morally acceptable for Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines based on research using cells derived from aborted fetuses.
One difference: no details about specific vaccines were mentioned or given. The Vatican plans to use the Pfizer vaccine for workers and their families starting this week, and Pope Francis – in an interview with an Italian broadcaster airing this weekend – said he has an appointment to get vaccinated.
The Vatican has suggested that it is wrong to refuse a vaccine solely on the grounds of objection to abortion, since refusal “may also result in a risk to others”.
Nicanor Austriaco, a molecular biologist and Catholic priest who teaches at universities in the US and the Philippines, said the Vatican has appropriately addressed faith-based concerns about vaccines indirectly related to research using aborted fetal cells.
“The moral evils contemplated here” took place in the 1970s when the original cell line was created, Austriaco said, “and it’s remote.”
G. Kevin Donovan, a professor of pediatrics at Georgetown University who leads the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, said leaders of his Catholic faith could not be “clearer.”
“The advantage that Catholics have is … the highest levels of authority have made it very clear that this is morally acceptable,” said Donovan.
In Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, an Islamic spiritual council is included in that country’s vaccine procurement process to ensure that a product is halal, or acceptable for use under Islamic law. In the past, the council ruled that some vaccines for other diseases were unacceptable because they used pork gelatin.
But on Friday, the council approved China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, paving the way for its distribution in Indonesia.
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Associated Press authors Elana Schor in Washington, Nicole Winfield in Rome and Victoria Milko in Jakarta, Indonesia contributed to this report.
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