Associated Press: Trump halts fetal tissue research by government scientists
“The Trump administration said Wednesday that it is ending medical research by government scientists that uses human fetal tissue. 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. That school — University of California, San Francisco — called the decision ‘politically motivated.’ Administration officials said the federal policy changes will not affect privately funded research…” (Alonso-Zaldivar/Neergaard, 6/5).

Washington Post: New restriction on fetal tissue research ‘was the president’s decision’
“…The determination to tighten federal support for an ideologically polarizing aspect of medical research was made by President Trump himself, a White House spokesman confirmed. ‘This was the president’s decision,’ said spokesman Judd Deere, calling it ‘another important policy … to protect the dignity of human life.’ The change represents … a major disappointment to scientists who say the tissue collected from elective abortions has been instrumental to unlocking the secrets of diseases that range from AIDS to cancers to Zika, as well as to developing vaccines and treatments for illnesses such as Parkinson’s disease…” (Goldstein, 6/5).

Additional coverage of the administration’s actions is available from Los Angeles Times, New York Times, POLITICO, San Francisco Business Times, Science, and STAT.