The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will no longer fund research that uses human fetal tissue obtained from “elective” abortions, the world’s biggest public funder of biomedical research announced on Thursday.
The ban marks the latest, and most dramatic, effort by the Trump administration to end research that uses fetal tissue from abortions – a goal that anti-abortion advocates, who oppose the research, have sought for years. In 2019, during Donald Trump’s first term in office, the NIH stopped funding internal research that involved the tissue and implemented a review committee to evaluate research proposals from scientists outside the government. Joe Biden ended that policy in 2021.
Jay Bhattacharya, the NIH’s director, suggested that the ban, which takes effect immediately, would help modernize the agency.
“This decision is about advancing science by investing in breakthrough technologies more capable of modeling human health and disease,” Bhattacharya said in a statement. “Under President Trump’s leadership, taxpayer-funded research must reflect the best science of today and the values of the American people.”
In a statement announcing the decision, the NIH said the number of agency-backed projects involving fetal tissue from abortions has been on the decline since 2019. In fiscal year 2024, the organization directed almost $60m to 77 projects that involved the tissue.
While NIH-funded researchers can still use fetal tissue obtained from miscarriages, scientists typically prefer to use tissue from abortions because miscarriages – or “spontaneous” abortions – can be caused by genetic or chromosomal problems that render the tissue abnormal. It is also difficult to collect usable tissue from miscarriages.
Fetal tissue has been used to advance research into a large number of diseases, including diabetes, Alzheimer’s and infertility. The tissue has also played a role in the development and production of vaccines for polio, hepatitis A, rabies and other illnesses.
