An advisory board that reviews applications for federal funding for projects that use fetal tissue from aborted babies has been disbanded.

According to The Christian Post, the National Institutes of Health announced recently that the independent board would be dissolved. The board was initially established by former President Donald Trump.

Under the Trump administration, the independent ethics board reviewed applications for NIH grants.

"HHS is reversing its 2019 decision that all research applications for NIH grants and contracts proposing the use of human fetal tissue from elective abortions will be reviewed by an Ethics Advisory Board," a statement from the group said.

The notice adds, "NIH reminds the community of expectations to obtain informed consent from the donor for any NIH-funded research using human fetal tissue and of continued obligations to conduct such research only in accord with any applicable federal, state, or local laws and regulations, including prohibitions on the payment of valuable consideration for such tissue."

In response, the National Right to Life Committee called the change a "sickening decision by the Biden administration."

"Tiny human babies are aborted by abortionists and then exploited to be farmed for their organs and tissue for use in experiments," Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said in a statement. "The Biden administration and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra have dismantled the process of making researchers meet any ethical standards when it comes to harvesting the body parts of aborted children for research."

In a statement, Reps. Suzan DelBene, Mark Pocn and Jan Schakowsky said they "applauded" the change in policy to reverse "the Trump administration's arbitrary barriers to both extramural and intramural researchers on the use of fetal tissue in scientific research."

Previously, the ethics board had reviewed 14 research proposals that would have used fetal tissue. The ethics board only approved one of the 14 for federal funding.

Source