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Should the government pay for medical research that uses tissue from aborted fetuses? This debate, ever smoldering, has erupted again, pitting anti-abortion forces in the Trump administration against scientists who say the tissue is essential for studies that benefit millions of patients. In a letter last week that read like a shot across the bow, the National Institutes of Health warned the University California, San Francisco, that its $2 million contract for research involving the tissue, previously renewed for a year at a time, would be extended for only 90 days and might then be canceled. (Grady, 12/12)

Since HHS announced in late September a wide-ranging audit of the use of fetal tissue in federally funded research, groups that have long sought to outlaw its use say they are finally being heard. They view such research as morally repugnant and unnecessary because they contend other techniques can be used — an assertion many scientists reject. “This is a pro-life administration,” said David Prentice, vice president and research director of the antiabortion Charlotte Lozier Institute, who said members of his group and the affiliated Susan B. Anthony List have met with Pence to press their case. “It’s just nice to have someone who will listen and not just close the door in your face.” (Bernstein, Goldstein and Sun, 12/12)

The National Institutes of Health freeze on fetal tissue procurement is threatening to hamper work at an agency lab conducting cancer research, the latest sign that a Trump administration decision could slow the efforts of some scientists who depend on the samples. ...The spokeswoman, Renate Myles, declined to identify the lab for “security reasons,” but said that the group is working on cancer immunotherapy.Two other NIH labs, one in Montana and another at the National Eye Institute, are also conducting research using fetal tissue that could ultimately be affected by the suspension. (Swetlitz, 12/12)