Trump administration ends federally funded research with fetal tissue from elective abortions

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The Trump administration Jan. 22 announced a policy ending the use of fetal tissue from elective abortions in federally funded research.

The National Institutes of Health announced that “funds will no longer be used to support research involving human fetal tissue from elective abortions. The policy applies across the NIH Intramural Research Program and all NIH-supported extramural research, including grants, cooperative agreements, other transaction awards, and research and development contracts.”

“NIH is pushing American biomedical science into the 21st century,” NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement.

He said the decision is “about advancing science by investing in breakthrough technologies more capable of modeling human health and disease” and added that “under President Trump’s leadership, taxpayer-funded research must reflect the best science of today and the values of the American people.”

According to the announcement, “NIH-supported research using human fetal tissue has declined steadily since 2019, with only 77 projects funded in Fiscal Year 2024. At the same time, advances in organoids, tissue chips, computational biology, and other cutting-edge platforms have created robust alternatives that can drive discovery while reducing ethical concerns.”

“The updated policy ensures that limited public resources are directed toward research approaches that offer the greatest potential to improve health outcomes for all Americans,” it said.

The NIH added it “will continue to assess additional areas where modernization can accelerate progress and will engage the scientific community in identifying emerging technologies that can further reduce reliance on outdated research models.”

“NIH will soon seek public comment on the robustness of emerging biotechnologies to reduce or potentially replace reliance on human embryonic stem cells in an effort to continue to drive modernization,” according to the announcement.

The news came amid several new policy announcements limiting taxpayer-funding for abortion providers from the administration just ahead of the 53rd annual March for Life Jan. 23.

The Small Business Administration announced a review of $88 million in taxpayer dollars that Planned Parenthood received in loans during the COVID pandemic. Meanwhile, the State Department is reportedly finalizing an expansion of the Mexico City policy, which bars taxpayer funded abortions abroad.

These announcements come after some tensions between the administration and pro-life groups after President Donald Trump told House Republicans in a Jan. 6 speech to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits public funding of elective abortions, in negotiations on health care subsidies.

The remark was met with disappointment by pro-life groups that have long viewed the policy as a bare minimum protection against taxpayer-funded abortion with decades of bipartisan backing.

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