(Newser)
– As health experts continue to plead with the public to accept any vaccine currently offered – whether from Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson – a new wrinkle has emerged for the latest vaccine in Louisiana. That’s because, on Friday, the archdiocese of New Orleans implored Catholics to opt for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine instead of the J&J vaccine, if the latter is “morally compromised,” according to WDSU. In a statement, the archdiocese says that, following guidance from the Vatican and other Catholic groups, it decided that the J&J vaccine deserves to be rejected because the company used cell lines from two abortions that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s in not just testing the vaccine, but also in its “development and production”. The archdiocese adds that while Pfizer and Moderna use the abortion-linked cell line for testing, they do not do so in the manufacturing process, so the “connection to abortion is extremely remote.”
WBRZ reports that the Diocese of Baton Rouge has similar qualms. “I continue to encourage everyone to receive the vaccination, but the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine has some moral concerns that we must recognize,” said Bishop Michael Duca in a statement, detailing the same issues linked to abortion cell lines. The Hill notes that while Catholic anti-abortion groups have long rejected companies that use cell lines from aborted fetuses, J&J defends it as a “research tool” that “[enables] new perceptions of disease, which can lead to new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat a wide variety of diseases. ”Despite their fears, however, the Catholic leadership in New Orleans and Baton Rouge says that if the J&J vaccine is the only option, the church will not give up whoever receives it. “If, for any reasonable circumstance, you can only get the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, feel free to do it for your safety and the common good,” says Duca. (Read more coronavirus vaccine stories.)