In the recent election, California voters committed $3 billion dollars in seed money for stem-cell research. Governor Schwarzenegger broke from President Bush and the Republican Party in supporting this proposition. President Bush has limited federal research dollars to those stem cell lines existing on or before August 9, 2001.

Stem cell research is the latest battleground in a debate over fetal research that has been going on for more than three decades, and that is inextricably linked to the controversy over abortion. Soon after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 legalizing abortion nationwide, antiabortion leaders seized upon research involving human embryos and fetuses as a weapon in the war against the right to choose.

For an update on public policy around research involving human embryos and fetuses, click here

For more information on the Bush administration’s position on stem cells, click here.

Click here for an overview of federal policy related to human embryo and fetal research.

Click here for information about the influence of abortion politics on fetal research.