CV NEWS FEED // Pro-life researchers are questioning the reasons behind an academic publishing company’s decision to retract their studies on chemical abortions.
As CatholicVote reported, Sage Publishing recently retracted three research articles on chemical abortions, citing the researchers’ pro-life values as a “conflict of interest” and claiming that the conclusions possessed “a lack of scientific rigor.”
Sage also claimed that the researchers never declared their pro-life values nor their affiliation with pro-life organizations, such as the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
According to Tessa Longbons, one of the researchers, she and her colleagues never hid their pro-life work.
“We fully disclosed who we were affiliated with,” she told The Christian Post. “All of us have our affiliations listed, and we reported that the studies were funded by Charlotte Lozier Institute.”
“And furthermore, we included biographies for each author that provided more details about who we are, where we work, and the type of work that we do,” Longbons continued. “So all of the information was provided upfront to the journal and presented so that readers can also see who we are and what we’re working on.”
According to the researchers, Sage does not hold pro-choice researchers who do not disclose their views when publishing their articles to the same “conflict of interest” standard.
Jim Studnicki, another one of the pro-life researchers, told The Christian Post that the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 is likely one of the reasons for retracting the articles.
“I think Dobbs really accelerated this; there’s a sense of desperation among those in the abortion industry,” Studnicki said. “They’ve always had the literature to themselves. All of the major health associations are pro-abortion, most of the journals are pro-abortion, all the academic departments in the universities are pro-abortion.”
According to The Christian Post, Longbons argued that research has begun “promoting ideology instead of science.”
“When we listen to scientists, we trust them to give us the facts,” she stated. “We trust them to be giving us the truth. And not just their own viewpoints.”
