The move comes just in time, ahead of the March for Life event.
By Catholics for Catholics
In a landmark victory for pro-life groups, the Trump administration announced a policy on Wednesday which will cease the use of fetal tissue from abortions in federally funded research.
According to a story by The Daily Wire, 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.”
The development is a big win for the pro-life movement, which has long fought for the United States to respect the dignity of the unborn, whose tissue is purchased by researchers after abortions. During the first Trump administration, the President prohibited intramural use of aborted fetal tissue, meaning research conducted within United States government facilities.
NIH is taking it one step further this time, stating that it will not fund any research involving tissue from aborted babies. The institute describes the move as a pivotal milestone in the Trump administration’s efforts to “modernize biomedical science and accelerate innovation,” but it comes just one day before the annual March for Life, a significant gift to the pro-life Americans gathering in Washington who have worked for years to arrive at this moment.
“NIH is pushing American biomedical science into the 21st century,” NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said Thursday. “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.”
In an interview with Ben Shapiro, the Daily Wire’s editor emeritus, Bhattacharya said that the use of human fetal tissue from aborted babies has provoked discussions for years, putting “a large part of the population” in an ethical jam. Given the great advances in science and the surplus of alternatives, he said, there is no reason to put Americans in a position that might violate their consciences.
“Now that there is better technology, there’s no scientific harm to this, we’re still going to be able to use the science we need … while at the same time getting rid of this use of aborted fetal tissue which so many people, including me, find morally abhorrent,” Bhattacharya said.
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