THE WASHINGTON TIMES —

Southern Baptist and Roman Catholic leaders are walking a tightrope in explaining their support for two COVID-19 vaccines, even though those drugs’ effectiveness was tested using genetic material from a line of cells linked to a fetus aborted in the 1970s.

Neither vaccine produced by U.S. drugmakers Moderna and Pfizer comprise or are derived from fetal cells, according to the manufacturers and U.S. regulators.

However, both used fetal cell line HEK-293 in a “confirmation test” of their innovative vaccines — a step that gives pause to some pro-life Christians.

Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, peppered Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, with questions about the ethics of taking the vaccine in a video-broadcast interview early this month.

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