[Just The News] The federal government funneled nearly $2 million in taxpayer dollars to controversial research that sewed aborted fetal scalps onto the skin of mice and rats in order to conduct experiments in human skin infection.That research, conducted at the University of Pittsburgh, has generated considerable controversy due to its procurement of fully intact skin from aborted fetuses, as well as the graphic results of those experiments in which the fetal skin, having been attached to the rodents, subsequently grew human hair.
Records show that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases funded that research to the tune of over $400,000. A full accounting of the project's funding stream, however, shows taxpayer contributions totaling almost five times that amount.
A spokeswoman for the NIAID told Just the News this week that grants from both that agency and the National Institutes of Health's Fogarty International Center add up to over $1.9 million.
"Total funding for the NIAID grant is $430,270," the spokeswoman said. "The FIC grant was awarded to the University of Pittsburgh ... in FY15, and the last year of the project is FY19. Total funding for the FIC grant is 1,498,642."
The agency said that the NIH "is committed to ensuring t