Fetal research ban authors try to persuade Senate committee

MADISON — The authors of a bill that would outlaw research on tissue from fetuses aborted are trying to persuade the state Senate's health committee to approve the proposal.

Sen. Duey Stroebel and Rep. Andre Jacque, both Republicans, told the committee during a public hearing Tuesday that the bill will stop atrocities and aborted children should be treated like humans, not specimens.

The bill would make experimenting on tissue taken from aborted fetuses after this past Jan. 1 a felony. The measure has drawn widespread opposition from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, private-sector scientists and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.

The bill is ready for a vote in the Assembly but it's unclear how much support the proposal has among Senate Republicans, who are concerned the measure's effect on research.