The National Institutes of Health (NIH) under the direction of President Trump and Health and Human Services (HHS)Secretary Robert F, Kennedy Jr. has halted any new funding grants for research using aborted baby body parts. In essence, the NIH will not renew the grants already in place or fund new grant requests for research using aborted baby body parts. Presently there are 17 ongoing research projects which received funding under the Biden administration.
This is a good first step and I applaud it. But in my opinion, we need a total ban implemented through both an executive order and act of Congress. The federal funding ban does not stop the research that is already going on around the country, which was either privately funded or federally funded in the past.
If you wonder why I am calling for a total ban of this gruesome/horrific research using baby body parts of unborn and those born alive during an abortion please read my past opinion piece which was published in The Burning Platform titled, “Where Is The Outcry.” Be forewarned that the information in my article is not for the faint of heart. https://www.theburningplatform.com/2025/01/25/where-is-the-outcry/
Presently, Republicans in Congress are working to defund research using aborted baby body parts in the House Appropriations Committee fiscal year 2026 NIH spending bill. The FY26 NIH spending bill stated, “None of the funds provided in this Act may be used to conduct or support research using human fetal tissue if such tissue is obtained pursuant to an induced abortion.” We need to keep an eye on this NIH spending legislation to make sure this section of the bill remains in the final bill.[1]
In an even better move “The Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act of 2025” (S.987) was introduced in the Senate on March 12, 2025, by Mississippi Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, along with ten Republican co-sponsors.[2] It was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on the same day. As of September 13, 2025, the bill remains in the committee referral stage and has not advanced further in the legislative process.[2]
A companion bill, H.R.2075, was introduced in the House of Representatives on March 11, 2025, by Missouri Republican Representative Robert Onder, and was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce on the same day.[3] Both bills share the same name and core provisions, aiming to prohibit the federal government from conducting, funding, approving, or otherwise supporting research involving human fetal tissue obtained from induced abortions, and to prohibit the solicitation or knowing acquisition of such tissue.
Unfortunately, both bills have not seen significant movement since their introduction in March 2025. An executive order from President Trump banning aborted baby fetal tissue research may help garner support for this life saving legislation.
Back in 1988 President Ronald Reagan warned that medical research using fetal tissue might lead to the ‘harvesting’ of baby body parts from living unborn and newborn infants. He was concerned that:
“Medical advances may encourage the harvesting of fetal organs before fetal death; may encourage the commercial exploitation of women; may encourage the buying and selling of fetal tissues for profit; may encourage an increase in abortions to meet the demand for fetal parts and may encourage the practice of keeping anencephalic and other handicapped newborns alive to keep their tissues fresh.”[4]
President Reagan wanted to protect unborn or newborn children from experimentation, research and organ transplantation. Everything that President Reagan warned about has come true.[5] His warnings were prophetic.
In 1988, his administration halted funding for research involving fetal tissue from elective abortions. In the end President Reagan did not outright ban fetal tissue research but imposed a moratorium on federal funding for it. The moratorium was lifted in 1993 under President Clinton. Funding for gruesome experiments on living unborn babies continued up until President Trump’s first administration where another federal funding ban was instituted. Funding then again resumed under Biden. Another halt to federal funding is once again being instituted by the Trump administration. Let us hope and pray this is only the first step and that it will lead to the total nationwide ban on this evil practice.
This opinion piece is dedicated to Charlie Kirk who was not only a patriot but fought hard for the protection of innocent unborn children. I believe that Jesus greeted Charlie in heaven with, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”