Rubio Applauds Trump Administration's Actions on Human Fetal Tissue From Elective Abortions

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) applauded the Trump administration's action to protect the dignity of human life from the moment of conception to natural death. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today that its contract with the University of California, San Francisco regarding research involving human fetal tissue from elective abortions, which expires today on June 5, 2019, will not be renewed.

"The federal government should never be complicit in the horrific scheme of buying fetal tissue from aborted babies," Rubio said. "I commend the Trump administration for protecting the dignity of human life by ending contracts that provide the fetal tissue of aborted babies for federally funded research."

HHS also announced plans to undertake changes to its regulations and National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants policy to adopt or strengthen safeguards and program integrity requirements applicable to extramural research involving human fetal tissue. HHS will continue to review whether adequate alternatives exist to the use of human fetal tissue from elective abortions in HHS-funded research and will ensure that efforts to develop such alternatives are funded and accelerated. In December 2018, NIH announced a $20 million funding opportunity for research to develop, demonstrate, and validate experimental models that do not rely on human fetal tissue from elective abortions.

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