The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today it will not renew a major contract with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to fund research using the body parts of aborted babies.

Last November, Trump Administration health officials met with national pro-life leaders, scientists and ethicists in hopes of resolving concerns over the administration’s continued funding of medical research using tissue obtained from aborted babies. A statement released by HHS today stated: “The audit and review helped inform the policy process that led to the administration’s decision to let the contract with UCSF expire and to discontinue intramural research – research conducted within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – involving the use of human fetal tissue from elective abortion. Intramural research that requires new acquisition of fetal tissue from elective abortions will not be conducted.”

In response to the announcement, Louisiana Right to Life Executive Director Benjamin Clapper said: “Louisiana Right to Life applauds the Trump Administration for ending a NIH contract that necessitates the experimentation on the broken bodies of aborted babies. It is a tragedy when an innocent unborn child is aborted, but that injustice is only exacerbated when these babies are used as the raw material in tax-funded research. The Trump Administration is choosing the ethical and wise path by placing these funds into successful research, such as ethical stem cell research, so our nation can continue to seek cures and treatments through ethical means.”