The Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans asked Catholics on Friday to take a vaccine for the COVID-19 manufactured by Johnson & Johnson because the vaccine was developed from stem cells obtained from two abortions.
In a statement on the archdiocese’s website, the organization claims that Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was ‘morally compromised’.
“The archdiocese must give Catholic orders that the latest vaccine from Janssen / Johnson & Johnson be morally endangered, as it uses the abortion-derived cell line in the development and production of the vaccine as well as the testing,” the statement said.
“We recommend that if the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine is available, Catholics should choose to receive one of those vaccines rather than receive the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine because of its extensive use of abortion lines,” he said. the archdiocese continued.
A request for comment from Johnson & Johnson was not immediately returned.
Catholic groups that oppose abortion have long criticized medical companies that use human cell lines of aborted fetuses, while companies, including Johnson & Johnson, have defended the process as medical breakthroughs in the field of disease prevention.
“As a research tool, human pluripotent stem cells promise to expand our understanding of normal physiological processes such as cell growth and differentiation, and to enable new insights into diseases, which could lead to new ways of dealing with a wide range of disorders,” reads a statement on the company’s website.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine became the third candidate for emergency use in the U.S. earlier this month, and was added to two others in the market by drugmakers Moderna and Pfizer.