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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced a prohibition on the use of human fetal tissue from elective abortions in research projects funded by taxpayers.
“HHS is ceasing the use of human fetal tissue from elective abortions in agency-supported research, opting instead for what we consider gold-standard science,” stated HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “This decision is underpinned by scientific evidence, ethical considerations, and a commitment to uniformly applying this standard throughout the Department,” he added.
This policy shift, unveiled on the same day as the 53rd annual March for Life, is said to reflect the Trump administration’s priorities, emphasizing the protection of human life and the modernization of biomedical research. The policy will be uniformly applied to grants, contracts, and programs managed by the department.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which allocates the majority of HHS’s research funding, will implement the new policy across its Intramural Research Program and NIH-supported extramural research. This includes grants, cooperative agreements, and research and development contracts. The policy supersedes previous NIH directives and “demonstrates a transition to research models that are more aligned with the current advancements in science, such as organoids, tissue chips, and computational biology,” stated the agency.
READ MORE — Exclusive: Investigation Reveals NIH Funding for 17 Grants Involving Fetal Tissue Research
“NIH is pushing American biomedical science into the 21st century,” NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement. “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.”
HHS had 77 projects using human fetal tissue that were funded by NIH during the fiscal year of 2024, the Daily Wire’s Mary Margaret Olohan first reported. NIH told the outlet that the number represents a steady decline since 2019.
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During President Donald Trump’s first term in 2019, he banned new funding for fetal tissue research and ended all in-house NIH research using the body parts of aborted babies.
When the rabidly pro-abortion Biden administration took over in 2021, the NIH, under the authority of the HHS, announced its reversal of the Trump administration’s decision to end taxpayer funding for experimental research that uses fetal tissue derived from aborted babies.
After President Trump was reelected for his second term, now-HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged at his Senate confirmation hearings to revive the ban.
The 2026 ban goes further than President Trump’s action in his first term, according to the Daily Wire report.
“Under the first Trump administration, the president banned intramural use of aborted fetal tissue, meaning research conducted within United States government facilities,” Olohan wrote. “This time, Trump’s NIH is going further, stating that it will not fund any research involving tissue from aborted babies.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
