NIH Ends Fetal Tissue Research From Elective Abortions

Does ending fetal tissue research modernize science or does it dangerously reject evidence-based medical progress?

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NIH Ends Fetal Tissue Research From Elective Abortions

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Above: The National Institutes of Health headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, on May 10, 2025. Image credit: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

The Spin

Pro-government narrative

Ending taxpayer funding for fetal tissue research from elective abortions is a necessary step toward modernizing biomedical science. With only 77 HFT projects funded in the 2024 fiscal year and revolutionary alternatives, such as organoids and tissue chips, now available, directing limited funding toward cutting-edge technologies represents a better investment of NIH resources.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Government-critical narrative

Fetal tissue research has been indispensable to biomedical progress since the 1930s, contributing to the development of countless crucial vaccines, including polio, rubella, measles, rabies and COVID, among others. Banning the use of this critical resource, therefore, would be a catastrophic outcome for medicine and a dangerous rejection of evidence-based science.

International Society for Stem Cell Research The Transmitter