In a blow to sci­ence, Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion aborts fed­er­al fund­ing for fe­tal tis­sue re­search

The Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion’s os­si­fied stance on re­pro­duc­tive rights is now set to in­ter­rupt sci­en­tif­ic re­search. On Wednes­day, med­ical re­search fund­ing for NIH sci­en­tists us­ing fe­tal tis­sue was abort­ed, along with a mul­ti­mil­lion-dol­lar con­tract with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia that in­volves re­search us­ing fe­tal tis­sue de­rived from elec­tive abor­tions to test HIV ther­a­pies.

Fe­tal tis­sue, har­vest­ed from dead fe­tus­es — from in­duced or nat­ur­al abor­tions — is used as trans­plan­ta­tion ma­te­r­i­al or to cre­ate cell lines. These cell lines can be uti­lized to test a drug’s abil­i­ty to dam­age ge­net­ic ma­te­r­i­al or to test the ef­fects of spe­cif­ic vi­ral (or oth­er types) of in­fec­tion. Since fe­tal cells mul­ti­ply — a small num­ber de­rived from a dead fe­tus can be eas­i­ly ex­pand­ed and used ei­ther as a source of more cell lines or for trans­plants.

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