S. 987 — Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act of 2025

This section prohibits any federal department, agency, or office from conducting, funding, approving, or otherwise supporting research involving human fetal tissue obtained pursuant to an induced abortion. It permits (1) development or support for new, high-efficiency cell lines (e.g., for vaccines or genetic vectors) not derived from such tissue and (2) research on tissue obtained after miscarriage or stillbirth under section 498A of the Public Health Service Act (PHSA; 42 U.S.C. 289g-1). The section amends PHSA section 498A by (1) revising the heading from “transplantation of fetal tissue” to “human fetal tissue obtained after a miscarriage or stillbirth”; (2) limiting the research program in subsection (a) to tissue obtained after miscarriage or stillbirth; (3) in subsection (b)(1)(B), conditioning donation requirements on tissue intended for transplantation; (4) in subsection (b)(2), striking subparagraph (A) and redesignating subparagraphs (B) and (C) as (A) and (B); (5) in subsection (c)(1)(B), replacing “pursuant to a spontaneous or induced abortion or pursuant to” with “after a miscarriage or”; and (6) in subsection (g), redefining “human fetal tissue” to mean tissue or cells from a dead unborn child after induced abortion, miscarriage, or stillbirth; “miscarriage” as involuntary death of an unborn child carried less than 20 weeks; “stillbirth” as involuntary death carried 20 weeks or more; and “unborn child” as defined in 18 U.S.C. 1841(d). The section repeals section 113 of the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 289g-1 note). (As background, prior law under PHSA section 498A authorized research, including transplantation, using fetal tissue from induced abortions with informed consent; these changes eliminate such authority for induced abortion tissue. Thus, federal research support is restricted to tissue from miscarriages or stillbirths.)

This section amends prohibitions on activities involving human fetal tissue under section 498B of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 289g-2) by revising paragraph (1) of subsection (c), as redesignated, to prohibit the solicitation or knowing acquisition, receipt, or acceptance of a donation of such tissue (excluding transfers for autopsy or burial) knowing that (A) a human pregnancy was deliberately initiated to provide the tissue or (B) the tissue was obtained pursuant to an induced abortion. It further strikes subsection (b); redesignates subsections (c) through (e) as subsections (b) through (d), respectively; and updates cross-references in redesignated subsection (c).