Trump to halt NIH funding for fetal tissue research, reversing Biden-era policy

The National Institutes of Health announced an immediate ban on funding for research using fetal tissue from elective abortions.

The move represents the Trump administration's most aggressive effort to date to end the practice, fulfilling a long-standing goal of anti-abortion activists. The policy reverses a 2021 decision by the Biden administration that had lifted restrictions originally imposed during Donald Trump’s first term in 2019.

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said the ban will help "modernize" the agency. In a statement, he said the decision aims to advance science by investing in breakthrough technologies that can better model human health and disease.

Bhattacharya also emphasized that taxpayer-funded research must reflect "the best current science and the values of the American people."

In fiscal year 2024, the NIH provided nearly $60 million for 77 projects involving fetal tissue.

While scientists may still use tissue from miscarriages, tissue from elective abortions is often preferred because it typically lacks genetic abnormalities and is easier to collect.

Fetal tissue has played a critical role in research for diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. It has also been used to develop vaccines for polio, hepatitis A, and rabies.

While framed as a strategic modernization of scientific protocols, the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) latest directive is fundamentally a political maneuver. The decision represents a high-profile victory for the anti-abortion movement and socially conservative voters, a demographic that remains the cornerstone of the Trump administration’s political base.

Director Jay Bhattacharya’s explicit invocation of “American values” signals that the debate has moved beyond the laboratory and deep into the trenches of the U.S. culture war. This policy shift is emblematic of a broader partisan polarization, where federal scientific funding is now subject to 180-degree reversals with every change in administration. The resulting "policy whiplash"—from the Trump restrictions in 2019 to the Biden administration’s 2021 reversal, and now back to a comprehensive ban by 2026—creates a volatile regulatory environment. Such instability threatens the viability of long-term longitudinal studies and risks a "brain drain" of talent from targeted fields of research.

Financially, the $60 million in affected funding is a marginal fraction of the NIH’s multi-billion-dollar annual budget. However, the targeted nature of the cuts will have an outsized impact on critical research pipelines, potentially stalling progress in treating Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and emerging infectious diseases. While the administration argues that alternative technologies can fill the vacuum, the sudden prohibition severs access to proven methodologies before equivalent substitutes are fully matured. The move underscores a clear hierarchy in the current administration’s agenda: prioritizing ideological alignment over the continuity of scientific enterprise.

This policy may resonate with a segment of the Vietnamese-American community, particularly Catholics and social conservatives who hold pro-life views. However, it offers no direct economic impact on the small businesses and phở restaurants that anchor Little Saigon, nor does it address the nail salon industry or the critical immigration issues—such as F2B family sponsorships, H-1B visas, or EB-5 investments—that remain vital to the community.