NIH Ends Funding of Research Using Human Fetal Tissue from Elective Abortions

On Thursday, the National Institute of Health announced (press release) that it will no longer fund research involving human fetal tissue from elective abortions, saying in part:

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

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.

Catholic Vote reports on the NIH announcement.

NIH Reverses Trump Era Restrictions On Fetal Tissue Research

 As reported by Politico:

The Biden administration on Friday moved to unwind strict Trump-era restrictions on federal-funded medical research using fetal tissue obtained by abortions, reversing policies that scientists warned would devastate the development of treatments for a broad range of diseases.

The Trump administration, under pressure from allied anti-abortion groups, ended fetal tissue research at the National Institutes of Health and established an ethics board to review government support for the research at universities and other labs. The board, which was filled with critics of the research, met just once and rejected 13 of 14 projects that NIH scientists had deemed worthy of support.

In a Notice (full text) published yesterday, the National Institutes of Health said in part:

This notice informs the extramural research community that HHS is reversing its 2019 decision that all research applications for NIH grants and contracts proposing the use of human fetal tissue from elective abortions will be reviewed by an Ethics Advisory Board. Accordingly, HHS/NIH will not convene another NIH Human Fetal Tissue Research Ethics Advisory Board.