New Mexico AG Reviewing Fetal Tissue Transfers to UNM

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Attorney General's Office is reviewing whether a clinic's transfer of aborted fetuses to the University of New Mexico violated state law. The request for the investigation comes from Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican who chairs the U.S. House Select Panel on Infant Lives. She sent a letter to Attorney General Hector Balderas on Thursday. Southwestern Women's Options, which is a provider of early and late-term abortions, has been providing fetal tissue to UNM for medical research. Blackburn says UNM Health Sciences Center and Southwestern Women's Options appear to have violated the Spradling Act. Attorneys working for the panel say the 2007 law only allows for the donation or transfer of stillbirth fetuses or fetuses resulting from miscarriages. The Health Sciences Center is disputing Blackburn's claims.