Trump halts fetal tissue research by government scientists

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Wednesday it is ending medical research by government scientists that uses human fetal tissue, overriding the advice of scientists who say it has led to life-saving medical advances and handing abortion opponents a major victory.

The Health and Human Services Department said in a statement that government-funded research by universities that involves fetal tissue can continue for now, subject to additional scrutiny — although it also ended one major university project that used the tissue to test HIV treatments.

The policy changes will not affect privately funded research, officials said.

Ending the use of fetal tissue by the National Institutes of Health has been a priority for anti-abortion activists, a core element of President Donald Trump's political base. A senior administration official said it was the president's call. The official wasn't authorized to publicly discuss internal deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

But research using fetal tissue has led to life-saving advances , including development of vaccines for rubella and rabies and drugs to treat the HIV virus. Scientists around the country denounced the decision, saying that fetal tissue was critically needed for research on HIV vaccines, treatments that harness the body's immune system to battle cancer, and a list of other health threats, including some to fetuses themselves.

"Prohibiting valuable research that uses fetal tissue that is otherwise going to be discarded doesn't make any sense," said Dr. Lawrence Goldstein, a regenerative medicine specialist at the University of California, San Diego. "It blocks important future research vital to the development of new therapies."

The government's own top medical scientist, NIH Director Francis Collins, said as recently as last December...