HHS won't use taxpayer dollars for research using aborted fetal tissue

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is banning the use of human fetal tissue sourced from elective abortion in federally funded research.

Under the new policy, researchers and institutions cannot receive National Institutes of Health funding if their research involves “the study, analysis, or use of primary HFT [human fetal tissue], cells, and derivatives, and human fetal primary cell cultures obtained from elective abortions.”

Already-established human fetal cell lines, such as HEK 293, are exempt from the ban, according to NIH’s grant-funded research requirements. 

“HHS is ending the use of human fetal tissue from elective abortions in agency-funded research and replacing it with gold-standard science,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said. “The science supports this shift, the ethics demand it, and we will apply this standard consistently across the Department.”

HHS Press Secretary Emily Hilliard also clarified that “elective abortions” refers “to abortion on demand, not for direct medical necessity.” 

The announcement came Friday, the day of the National March for Life, where Vice President J.D. Vance praised the Trump administration’s change.

More from this section

Defiant protests over US immigration crackdown, child's detention

US skeleton racer appeals for Olympic spot after 'corrupted' qualifier

Minnesota ICE shooting puts new twist on gun rights debate

“We have been responsible stewards of your tax dollars on this question of life…we’ve reinstated a ban on fetal tissue in federal research,” Vance said at the event.

“We’ve made tremendous strides over the last year, and we’re going to continue to make strides over the next three years to come,” he added.

The administration also recently launched a fraud investigation into 38 affiliates of Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions. 

It alleged that the affiliates may have unlawfully received a total of $88 million through the COVID-19 era Paycheck Protection Program, meant to support struggling small businesses, by misrepresenting their organization size or affiliation.

“Planned Parenthood Federation of America was never eligible to receive a dime in pandemic-era relief from taxpayers,” Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler said. “As part of the review underway, not only will we expose the Planned Parenthood affiliates who took advantage of the American people – we will take every necessary step to force every bad actor to pay them back.”

PPFA has denied the accusations and called them “politically motivated intimidation tactics.”