USA – Restrictions on fetal tissue research would threaten progress on breakthrough treatments for devastating diseases — and yet not prevent a single abortion

By Lawrence S. B. Goldstein
Nov 8, 2025

Human fetal tissue (HFT) research has been indispensable for understanding and combating diseases that affect millions worldwide. Reports that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) may not renew grants supporting this work are deeply troubling, as such action would jeopardize progress against devastating conditions including cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, eye disorders, and neurological and rare diseases.

For decades, HFT has been funded by the U.S. government. It’s had broad bipartisan support under both Republican and Democratic administrations because this research has saved lives. Yet, there are early signs that the Trump administration may ban ethical and well-established uses of fetal tissue in important medical research based on politics rather than science.

Continued: https://www.livescience.com/health/restrictions-on-fetal-tissue-research-would-threaten-progress-on-breakthrough-treatments-for-devastating-diseases-and-yet-not-prevent-a-single-abortion

08.11.2025

Commentary

Research

human fetal tissue research

Lawrence S.B. Goldstein

National Institutes of Health

Neurodegenerative disease

Parkinson's disease

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

vaccines and fetal tissue

USA – The future of federal abortion data collection is unclear

Federal data collection on abortion is indefinitely on pause, making it difficult to determine how the reversal of Roe v. Wade has reshaped Americans' lives.

Chabeli Carrazana
June 23, 2025

A government watchdog says it’s unclear when — or even whether — we’ll know going forward how the end of national abortion protections impact Americans’ health outcomes, livelihoods and financial futures as the federal government turns away from abortion data collection indefinitely.

A report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office and first shared exclusively with The 19th analyzed the existing data on the economic impact of abortion bans and found that government tracking has been very limited — and could become more so due to changes made by the Trump administration.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2025/06/federal-data-abortion-unclear-gao-report/

23.06.2025

Commentary

data collection on abortion

Diana Greene Foster

Government Accountability Office

National Institutes of Health

South Africa – Millions of rand go down the drain as state resources used for illegal abortion industry

Dec 10, 2023
Ntando Makhubu

AS South Africa sits on the edge of disaster resulting from the effects of unsafe abortions, communities and health experts have said what was devastating was the reality that not only were women and young girls endangering their lives by going the illegal route, but the real tragedy was the involvement of state officials, who supplied those who performed terminations and made millions from the illegal procedures.

This despite the country having put into place the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act in 1996, which allows women the right to safe abortions in hospitals and doctors’ rooms, up to 20 weeks of pregnancy to ensure safety and in keeping with the World Health Organisation’s prescripts.

Continued: https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/news/millions-of-rand-go-down-the-drain-as-state-resources-used-for-illegal-abortion-industry-0c8b9d44-bf19-4596-8e43-14459a7b562b

USA – How anti-abortion laws impact the Black community

With some of the highest maternal death rates in the nation, Black pregnant people face extreme impacts on their health, particularly those in states with restrictive abortion bans.

By Rebekah Sager
April 17, 2023

When the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization last June, overturning Roe v. Wade and ending federal constitutional affirmation of the right to abortion, medical experts and pro-abortion activists working in the Black maternal health community say, they knew the result could be dire.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black pregnant people are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white pregnant people. And Black infants are nearly four times as likely to die during birth as white infants, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health reports.

Continued: https://americanindependent.com/anti-abortion-laws-black-pregnancy-mifepristone-supreme-court-maternal-infant-death-health-care/

USA – The Abortion Battle Over Rising Deaths in Pregnant Women

BY KATHERINE FUNG
ON 3/24/23

A massive spike in U.S. maternal deaths has abortion-rights and anti-abortion groups debating the cause of the nation's most fatal odds for expectant mothers in more than half a century.

A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week said that maternal mortality—deaths that take place during pregnancy or within 42 days after delivery—shot up by 40 percent in 2021. The figure reaffirms America's position as the most dangerous wealthy country to live in when pregnant or while giving birth.

Continued: https://www.newsweek.com/abortion-battle-over-rising-deaths-pregnant-women-1789982

One of Trump’s COVID-19 treatments was developed using tissue that originally came from an abortion.

He's tried to ban this kind of research.

Sinéad Baker
Oct 8, 2020

One of President Donald Trump's COVID-19 treatments was developed using testing with cells that originally came from an abortion, a common process that the Trump administration has tried to restrict.

The treatment was an experimental antibody cocktail made by the American biotech company Regeneron. The company confirmed to the MIT Technology Review that its testing involved using cells that were originally obtained from a fetus aborted in the 1970s, though those cells were not used to make the treatment.

Continued: https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-coronavirus-treatment-regeneron-tested-cells-derived-abortion-2020-10

08.10.2020

Featured

News

Alexandra Bowie

Covid-19 and abortion

Donald Trump

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HEK 293T

National Institutes of Health

USA – Limiting Scientific Research is Another Front in the War on Abortion

10/6/2020
by MICHELLE ONELLO

The recent death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg puts reproductive rights guaranteed by Roe v. Wade in grave jeopardy. As part of its war on abortion, the Trump administration has banned scientists from using human fetal tissue (HFT) donated from terminated pregnancies in medical research.

The ban on HFT research is not only another attack on reproductive freedoms; it is limiting crucial medical advances, putting lives in danger and demonstrating the vast collateral damage unleashed by the war on abortion. Reproductive rights advocates must seize upon this dangerous politicization of medical research to forge new allies and further broaden advocacy coalitions.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2020/10/06/reproductive-freedom-hft-human-fetal-tissue-abortion-trump-hhs-alex-azar/

Trump fetal tissue ethics board urges rejection of nearly all research proposals

By Amy Goldstein
August 18, 2020

A new advisory board, created to review the ethics of proposed fetal tissue research grants, is urging the Trump administration to block government funding for nearly all of the applications — essentially seeking to ban support for most such scientific work.

The recommendation that the National Institutes of Health withhold funds
from all but one of a slate of 14 research proposals means that Health and
Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who has the final say, would need to buck
the will of a board he convened — and of social conservatives crucial to
President Trump’s political base — for the projects to get federal support.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/trump-fetal-tissue-research/2020/08/18/85902fcc-e157-11ea-8dd2-d07812bf00f7_story.html

Trump ban on fetal tissue research blocks coronavirus treatment effort

Trump ban on fetal tissue research blocks coronavirus treatment effort

By Amy Goldstein
March 18, 2020

A senior scientist at a government biomedical research laboratory has been thwarted in his efforts to conduct experiments on possible treatments for the new coronavirus because of the Trump administration’s restrictions on research with human fetal tissue.

The scientist, Kim Hasenkrug, an immunologist at the National Institutes of Health’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana, has been appealing for nearly a month to top NIH officials, arguing that the pandemic warrants an exemption to a ban imposed last year prohibiting government researchers from using tissue from abortions in their work.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/trump-ban-on-fetal-tissue-research-blocks-coronavirus-treatment-effort/2020/03/18/ddd9f754-685c-11ea-abef-020f086a3fab_story.html

Trump administration ends federal foetal tissue research

Trump administration ends federal foetal tissue research

5 June 2019

The Trump administration has ended federal research using human foetal tissue, delivering a victory to anti-abortion advocates.

The move, announced on Wednesday, has been criticised by scientists who say such tissue is essential in researching diseases like HIV and cancer.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48531023