Washington—Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) released the following statement after the Trump administration placed new restrictions on fetal tissue research and ended a 30-year long partnership between the National Institutes of Health and the University of California, San Francisco:

            “The Trump administration’s ban on NIH funding for fetal tissue research will have real world consequences for patients suffering from devastating diseases, like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or HIV. The severe restrictions put in place today will stifle scientific innovation and biomedical research, making it harder to develop new treatments or find cures.

            “In his State of the Union address, President Trump announced he supported bold initiatives to end the HIV epidemic. But his administration has now effectively canceled federal funding for promising HIV research models at UCSF that are only possible through the use of fetal tissue.

            “Scientists, medical researchers, doctors and patients are already speaking out. I strongly urge President Trump to heed their warnings and reverse this politically motivated ban.”

Background

• The Trump administration announced it will end fetal-tissue research within the National Institutes of Health, which will severely limit funding for this groundbreaking research.

• On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services said it won’t renew a contract with the University of California, San Francisco, ending a 30- partnership and threatening groundbreaking HIV research.

• Rigorous legal and ethical oversight of fetal tissue research has been in place for decades. Federal government reviews have concluded that fetal tissue research is critical for life-saving biomedical research.

• Fetal tissue is a critical component of biomedical science and has led to numerous medical breakthroughs, including advances to the polio vaccine, which has saved hundreds of thousands of lives and merited the 1954 Nobel Prize for Medicine.

• It continues to be essential in advancing the development of vaccines against chickenpox, measles and rubella, as well as treatments for diseases such as Parkinson’s and rheumatoid arthritis.