Looking Ahead: Getting Out the Vote

Cutting-edge science promises to be a 2000 election issue--but not in the way many researchers might hope. Antiabortion groups have put a high priority on banning taxpayer funding of promising research using cells and tissues from human fetuses. The conservative Traditional Values Coalition is already running TV ads attacking four senators, including Nebraska's Bob Kerrey (D), for voting last October against an amendment that would have required scientists to document the source of fetal tissues. Meanwhile, biomedical lobbyists are girding themselves for what promises to be a bruising congressional debate this spring over legislation that would ban or restrict federal support for fetal tissue studies.