Federal Research Funding Halted for Tissue from Induced Abortions: New Law Criminalizes Acquisition

The “Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act of 2025” is a major policy shift. It slams the door shut on federal support—meaning no funding, no conducting, and no approving—for any research that uses human fetal tissue obtained from an induced abortion (SEC. 2). This means that if you’re a federally funded scientist studying, say, Parkinson’s disease using a cell line derived from this source, your funding stream is gone. The bill explicitly allows research using tissue from miscarriages or stillbirths, but it updates the rules in the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) that govern how that research is done.

The New Line in the Sand for Scientists

For decades, certain types of medical research, including developing vaccines and understanding complex diseases, have relied on human fetal tissue. This bill doesn't just cut funding; it legally restricts the source material. While it allows federal agencies to develop new cell lines, those lines cannot originate from induced abortion tissue. This could be a hurdle for innovation, especially if the existing, proven cell lines derived from this source are deemed more effective than alternatives. The bill also scraps an older law, Section 113 of the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993, which previously governed some of this research, effectively clearing the way for this new, stricter regime.

When Research Becomes a Crime

Here’s the part that hits the hardest outside of the funding cuts: Section 3 introduces new criminal prohibitions. It makes it illegal for anyone to solicit, knowingly acquire, receive, or accept a donation of human fetal tissue if they know it came from an induced abortion or if the pregnancy was started just to get the tissue. The key word here is “knowingly.” For a researcher or lab technician, proving they didn't “know” the exact source of every single sample could become a massive legal risk. This provision places a heavy legal burden on the entire research supply chain, potentially chilling legitimate scientific inquiry because the risk of prosecution is too high. If you’re a lab manager, this means you now have to be absolutely certain about the paperwork trail for every single piece of tissue you receive, or you could be facing serious trouble.

The Real-World Cost of Restriction

Who feels this change the most? First, medical researchers and institutions that rely on federal grants for work in areas like diabetes, certain cancers, and neurological disorders are immediately impacted. These researchers may have to pivot to less effective models or abandon years of work. Second, patients waiting for breakthroughs in these areas—perhaps a new treatment for a loved one with Alzheimer’s—could face delays as scientists struggle to find viable, federally compliant alternatives. While the bill provides clarity by allowing research on tissue from miscarriages and stillbirths, the overall impact is a significant contraction of available research pathways, especially in fields where the restricted tissue sources were considered the gold standard for modeling human development and disease. The vagueness around the term “knowingly” in the criminal section also creates a new layer of professional risk for anyone handling these materials, from the research assistant to the principal investigator.