The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has officially prohibited the use of human fetal tissue obtained from elective abortions in research funded by taxpayers.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated, “We are moving away from using human fetal tissue from elective abortions in research funded by our agency, opting instead for scientifically superior methods. This decision is grounded in scientific evidence, demanded by ethical standards, and will be consistently applied throughout the Department.”
The announcement, coinciding with the 53rd annual March for Life, reflects the Trump administration’s goals to prioritize the sanctity of human life while modernizing biomedical science. This policy will be implemented across all grants, contracts, and programs managed by HHS.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which manages the majority of HHS’s medical research funding, will implement this policy within its Intramural Research Program and all NIH-supported extramural research. This encompasses grants, cooperative agreements, other transaction awards, and research and development contracts. The new policy supersedes previous NIH guidelines and emphasizes a shift to validated research models better suited for current scientific innovations, such as organoids, tissue chips, computational biology, and other advanced platforms, according to the agency.
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NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya remarked, “The NIH is propelling American biomedical science into the modern era. This decision focuses on advancing science by investing in groundbreaking technologies that can more accurately model human health and disease. Under President Trump’s administration, research funded by taxpayers must represent the highest standards of science and align with American values.”
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.”
