The Trump administration is ending medical research by government scientists using human fetal tissue, a victory for abortion foes.

At least one university's government funding will be terminated, effective immediately, although officials suggested that other research may allowed to continue under intense scrutiny.

The policy change will not affect privately funded research that used human fetal tissue.

Ending the use of fetal tissue by the government is a victory for anti-abortion activists, part of President Donald Trump's political base, as well as for his Vice President, Mike Pence, who has called the sale and use of fetal tissue 'horrific.'

Abortion opponents say there are alternatives to fetal tissue, but scientific groups say that's not so for every disease and condition.

Research fields that rely in part on fetal tissue include HIV and childhood cancers.

The Trump administration will ban government scientists from using fetal tissue in their research, the latest in a series of moves to ends these studies, to which anti-abortionists are strongly opposed

Scientists use fetal tissue to create 'humanized mouse models' - animals that have cells and tissues that mimic those of humans.

They allow scientists to study exactly how diseases and drugs might affect humans, without actually testing them on people.

Fetal tissue can only be used if a woman who voluntarily had an abortion agrees to donate it and signs an informed consent document.

Using this tissue has been instrumental to scientists' understanding and treatment of conditions including cancer and HIV, according to those who conduct such research.

Between 2018 and 2019, a total of 109 NIH grants for research involving fetal tissue were active, according to Dailymail.com's analysis of the agency's RePORT database.

Opponents of fetal tissue research claim that alternatives can come close enough to mimicking human processes without using fetal tissues.

This is not the Trump administration's first move to block fetal tissue - albeit the most direct, so far.

In December 2018, the NIH said it was considering allocating $20 million to research possible alternatives to fetal tissue that would be more palatable to anti-abortionists.

And prior to that, in September, the HHS announced that it would be reviewing all government-funded fetal tissue research according to 'serious regulatory, moral and ethical considerations.'

The same month, the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) contract that allowed it to purchase and collect fetal tissue to test drugs was cancelled.

It is not yet entirely clear how Wednesday's announcement may affect research institutions.

Although it allows fetal tissue research at universities that has thus far been government-funded to continue, it also ominously promises review of this work.

Already, these studies have been on shaky ground.

For months, the administration has been dangling partial permissions for the use of fetal tissue in front of research institutions.

Last year, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) received a letter from the HHS demanding the Gladstone Institutes lab there to stop procuring fetal tissue for their HIV research, Science reported.

In December 2018, NIH Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak chocked that letter up to a miscommunication, and promised to resolve the issue.

That same month, the UCSF the lab that its contract for HIV research involving fetal tissue would be extended another three months while the HHS performed an audit of the lab's practices.

In April, the HHS reiterated the same promise: another three months.

That extension expired Wednesday, June 5, 2019 - the same day that the HHS announced its new policy, with a specific note that UCSF's contract will not be renewed or extended.

'Promoting the dignity of human life from conception to natural death is one of the very top priorities of President Trump’s administration,' the HHS said in a statement.

'The audit and review helped inform the policy process that led to the administration’s decision to let the contract with UCSF expire and to discontinue intramural research - research conducted within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) - involving the use of human fetal tissue from elective abortion.'

For now, any other universities and research institutions that have active grants to conduct fetal tissue research will be affected, the HHS announcement said.

New applications for grants and funding will have to undergo scientific and ethical review.

'HHS will also undertake changes to its regulations and NIH grants policy to adopt or strengthen safeguards and program integrity requirements applicable to extramural research involving human fetal tissue,' the statement said.