Washington D.C., Jun 5, 2019 / 14:10 pm
The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it declined to renew a contract with the University of California that funded a research program which used fetal tissue obtained from abortions.
The decision, announced June 5, follows a "comprehensive review" by the Department of Health and Human Services, announced in September 2018, into any research involving fetal tissue. The review set out to find "adequate alternatives" to avoid the use of human fetal tissue altogether. At the time, HHS promised to "ensure that efforts to develop such alternatives are funded and accelerated."
The review identified a program at the University of California, San Francisco, that used fetal tissue, and the determination was made not to renew its federally-funded contract. The non-renewal means that the National Institutes for Health (NIH) no longer funds any research that involves aborted remains.
The research program involved the use of bone marrow, thymuses, and livers from aborted babies which were used to create mice with human-like immune systems. The "humanized mice" were then used for testing and experimentation.