The Trump administration ended all National Institutes of Health funding support for research involving aborted human fetal tissue.
The NIH announced a new policy on Thursday that bars research relying on taxpayer-funded grants, contracts, awards, and agreements from involving fetal tissue from elective abortions. The announced policy, effective immediately, comes one day before the March for Life in Washington, D.C.
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said the policy initiative comes as part of NIH’s dedication “to ensure that research supported by taxpayer funds is scientifically rigorous, ethically sound, and justified by a maximal return on the public’s investment.”
Research using human fetal tissue has been used in scientific experiments to develop various common vaccines, such as the polio vaccine. The research uses cell lines that come from aborted fetuses, raising serious ethical questions over their use, especially from the Catholic Church and advocates of protecting the unborn.
Fetal tissue research supported with NIH funds has been in a steady decline for over half a decade, according to Bhattacharya. In 2019, during President Donald Trump‘s first term, he banned NIH scientists from using fetal tissue in research conducted in U.S. government labs.
“NIH-supported research using human fetal tissue has been in decline since 2019, with only 77 projects supported in Fiscal Year 2024,” Bhattacharya said. “Given this sustained decline, the increasing availability of validated alternative technologies, and the need to steward public resources in ways that most effectively drive innovation, NIH will no longer support research using human fetal tissue.”
Also during his first term, Trump fast-tracked funding support for finding alternatives to fetal tissue.
Bhattacharya told lawmakers in March that he was “absolutely committed” to avoiding the use of fetal tissue in public health research, saying, “We need to make sure the products of science are ethically acceptable to everybody.”
The move comes the same day a poll from Knights of Columbus-Marist showed 67% of Americans support placing legal limits on abortion, 63% oppose forcing healthcare professionals to carry out abortions, 88% believe laws can protect both mothers and unborn children, and 84% support pregnancy resource centers that provide support for mothers during their pregnancies and after their babies are born. The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic organization.
ANTI-ABORTION GROUPS KEEP PRESSURE ON WHITE HOUSE AFTER MARCH FOR LIFE OLIVE BRANCH
Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly said in a statement to the Washington Examiner, “The Knights of Columbus-Marist Poll continues to show that a majority of Americans support legal restrictions on abortion. At the same time, a growing majority support pregnancy resource centers, which provide assistance to mothers and their children in their time of greatest need.”
He added, “The Knights have supported vulnerable women and their children since our founding by Blessed Michael McGivney more than 140 years ago, and our commitment has never wavered. And now, we’re guided by the encouraging words of Pope Leo XIV, who recently mentioned in his “State of the World” address, ‘life is a priceless gift,’ and that, as Catholics, we have a ‘fundamental ethical imperative’ to ‘welcome and fully care for unborn life.’ The Knights of Columbus’ mission will continue to be guided by these principles until abortion becomes unthinkable.”