Assembly GOP lawmakers vow to quickly pass fetal tissue bill

State Assembly Republicans are vowing to pass by as early as September a bill still in draft form to ban the sale, donation and use of the body parts of fetuses following abortions and require the remains to be buried or cremated.

The proposal has languished in the past two legislative sessions but controversial videos have added momentum to the measure, with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) committing to the bill Wednesday before it has even been introduced.

“We’re going to come back in the fall and we’re going to pass a bill that ensures that the sale of fetal body parts anywhere in Wisconsin is a crime with heavy punishment,” Vos told conservative radio host Jay Weber.

It’s already a crime to profit from the sale of fetal tissue and abortion clinics say no tissue transfers of any kind are happening in Wisconsin. But the bill would go farther than existing law and ban donations of such tissues or research on longstanding tissue lines — an alarming development for some medical researchers.

Large and in charge. Wisconsin is owned lock stock and barrel.