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 to take, given their remote and indirect connection with cells being derived. of aborted fetuses.
One outspoken enemy of abortion in Dallas, Pastor Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist mega-church, called the vaccines a “gift from God.”
“Asking God for help, but then refusing the vaccine, makes no more sense than calling 911 if your house is on fire, but refusing to let the firefighters in,” Jeffress said in an email. “There is no legal faith-based reason for refusing to take the vaccine.”
Rev. Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, also celebrated their development.
“I will take it not only for what I hope will be the benefit of my own health, but also for others,” he said on his website.
The American Conference of Catholic Bishops, which says the fight against abortion is its top priority, said last month that getting vaccinated against the coronavirus should be understood as an act of charity towards our other members. community, according to a statement. by the chairmen of its Committee on Learning and Committee on Pro-Life activities.
The bishops said it was morally acceptable for Catholics to use one of the two vaccines approved for use in the US – made by Pfizer and Moderna – despite an “external connection to morally affected cell lines.” This involved the use of fetal cell lines for laboratory tests to confirm the efficacy of the vaccines.
Another leading vaccine, manufactured by AstraZeneca and approved for use in Britain and some other countries, is ‘morally endangered’, and should be avoided if alternatives are available, the bishops said.
Together with the USCCB, four bishops in Colorado issued their own statement adopt a somewhat negative attitude towards AstraZeneca and describe it as ‘not a morally valid option’.
AstraZeneca used a cell line known as HEK293 to develop the vaccine. According to the University of Oxford who developed it, the original HEK293 cells were taken from the kidney of an aborted fetus in 1973, but the cells now in use are clones of the original cells and are not the original fetal tissue. .
Since the first vaccines were approved last year, some Catholic bishops have warned that they may be morally unacceptable. Among them was Bishop Joseph Brennan of Fresno, California, who urged Catholics not to jump on the ‘vaccine bandwagon’.
He later adjusted his position, saying that a Catholic could ethically decide to use such vaccines due to serious health risks for individuals and communities. ‘
The vaccinations were also questioned by Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, who indicated the use of aborted fetuses in vaccine development as evil and said he would not take any of the currently available vaccines.
“The Church has said the vaccine is permissible under certain circumstances, and I do not dispute that,” he said in an email. “The Church has also said that we must ask strongly for vaccines that are morally produced, and I call on those who take the vaccine to join the mission and demand change.”
Strickland encourages donations to the John Paul II Medical Research Institute, which supports research to develop ‘ethical’ cell lines – using adult stem cells – that will be used to manufacture vaccines and other medical therapies.
Some other outspoken bishops against abortions accepted the vaccines.
“Since a Christian is involved in the world, it is impossible to fully cooperate with moral evil in many areas,” tweeted Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island. ‘The church, at various 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 doubt about being vaccinated.
“I just hope they don’t implant a microchip in my arm to determine when I’m cheating on my diet,” he joked on Twitter.
According to Rev. Russell Moore, who heads the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, has had relatively little anti-vaccine rhetoric among Protestant evangelical leaders, who generally have strong anti-abortion views.
“I could not think of a single evangelical pastor who says, ‘Do not be vaccinated,'” he said.
A more notable challenge for pastors, Moore said, is to counter unfounded anti-vaccine conspiracy theories that are embraced by some members of their congregations or communities – for example, that the vaccines would alter a recipient’s DNA or a microchip would implant the secret.
Globally, the Vatican has issued guidelines largely similar to those of American bishops, declaring it morally acceptable for Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines, based on research using cells derived from aborted fetuses.
One difference: it does not contain details on specific vaccines. The Vatican plans to use the Pfizer vaccine for employees and their families from this week, and Pope Francis aired an interview with an Italian broadcaster over the weekend, saying he has an appointment to be vaccinated.
The Vatican has suggested that it is wrong to refuse a vaccine based solely on the abortion objection, as refusal ‘could also pose a risk to others’.
Nicanor Austriaco, a molecular biologist and Catholic priest who teaches at universities in the U.S. and the Philippines, said the Vatican has addressed faith-based concerns about vaccines indirectly related to research using aborted fetal cells.
“The moral evil being considered here” occurred in the 1970s when the original cell line was created, Austriaco said, “and it is remote.”
G. Kevin Donovan, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Georgetown, who runs his Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, said leaders of his Catholic faith could not have been ‘clearer’.
“The advantage that Catholics have is … the highest levels of authority have made it very clear that this is a morally acceptable thing to do,” Donovan said.
In Indonesia, home to the largest Muslim population in the world, a Muslim ecclesiastical council has been included in the country’s vaccination process to ensure that a product is halal or acceptable for use under Islamic law. In the past, the council has ruled that some vaccines are unacceptable for other diseases because they use gelatin containing pork.
But on Friday, the council approved China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, which paved the way for its spread 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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Associated Press religious coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation US. The AP is solely responsible for this content.