More specifically, the 1993 stuff that the article mentions is in Sec. 289g-1, Research on transplantation of fetal tissue and Sec. 289g-2, Prohibitions regarding human fetal tissue.
The section of the 1993 law that supposedly makes it illegal to ban (any?)funding of fetal stem cell research is called "Nullification of Moratorium," which is in the U.S.Code under Notes on Sec. 289g-1 and includes a link to the actual Public Law that was passed.
As far as I can make out, the Administration is right in saying current law forbids, with one kind of exception, blocking funding for this awful research. That exception concerns cases where the timing or procedure is manipulated to "harvest" [sneer quotation marks -rdf] the tissue under more favorable conditions.
It's not easy for me, not being a lawyer, to be sure I'm right about these technical documents, but I think I've got it right. Any corrections would be appreciated.
It is dismaying that our pro-life legal and political forces failed to bring this to light during the run up to the ESCR decision last summer. It is also puzzling that the administration didn't point it out, though they, too, could have missed it, at least at the top levels. Someone in NIH clearly knew, but those people may have wished to keep it from the White House. It's anyone's guess what the real story might be.
One thing is plain: the pro-aborts who inserted the language in 1993 knew about it, and hence they, at least, knew there was an unreal character to the public discussion of ESCR. We were, that is to say, already committed to this kind of thing, with federal money, for the even more shocking harvesting of the corpses of unborn children late in the third trimester.
So where do we go from here? I think I'll write about it for the Declaration Foundation website and I'll poke around the pro-life contacts I have and see if there is any energy for raising public awareness of the situation. Ken Connor of FRC has written the President, and we should, IMHO, get letters out to our Legislators and to the White House as well.
It's a discouraging situation, but one does what one can.
Cheers,
Richard F.