The Trump administration has made some pro-life progress in the past two years.

In addition to seating two new justices on the Supreme Court who may decide issues relating to abortion, President Trump has also reinstated the Mexico City Policy and defunded the United Nations Population Fund. The latter has been linked to China’s pro-abortion, one-child population control.

Another unprecedented move was taken by the Department of Health and Human Services in their Strategic Plan for 2018-2022, which is updated every four years. This latest version includes the following as part of their mission, emphasis mine.

Enhance international preparedness activities at the national, regional, and global levels to identify gaps, build capacity, and track progress to prevent, detect, and respond to health threats, respecting cultural differences and the inherent dignity of persons from conception to natural death.

For the first time ever, the HHS defined life as beginning at conception. What a beautiful pro-life statement.

Now, the HHS is following through with the desire to establish that all life is sacred by seeking to retire a program that uses aborted fetal tissue for scientific research.

Politico reports:

An HHS official told a key conservative lawmaker Friday the agency seeks to end the use of fetal tissue in taxpayer-funded research if it can find “adequate alternatives” — advancing the agenda of anti-abortion groups who decry the use of tissue derived from elective abortions for biomedical research.

Brett Giroir, the HHS assistant secretary of health, sent a letter to GOP Rep. Mark Meadows (N.C.) — the anti-abortion leader of the Freedom Caucus —describing the agency’s plan to move forward on alternatives to fetal tissue. The National Institutes of Health currently funds more than $100 million in research that draws on fetal tissue.

As reported, the letter mentions the desire for the HHS under President Trump to be “pro-life and pro-science“, a combination that is both possible and necessary. The correspondence also states that the “agency did too little to find alternatives to fetal tissue under previous administrations.”

This has never really been a priority. That much is obvious.

Giroir’s letter — drafted in response to a meeting with Meadows and before HHS has listening sessions with scientists on Friday afternoon — suggests that the Trump administration has committed to efforts to accelerate the development of alternatives so it could reduce or eliminate the use of fetal tissue. The draft defines alternatives as “models that are scientifically validated and reproducible in multiple conditions and by multiple investigators.”

It looks as if alternatives for life-affirming, scientific research are being seriously considered. They should be. They must be.

Using the remains of discarded human life – that has been violently snuffed out – should not be applauded. Pro-life individuals should demand change. The HHS, with their stated commitment to respecting life from conception on, must lead the way.

Americans of all political stripes know that research is necessary to combat illnesses that affect us and those we love. But in the midst of those discoveries, we must not disrespect the lives that have been taken through gruesome legal homicide by using aborted fetal tissue in these scientific quests.

The process to find alternatives may be difficult, but it is necessary. I applaud the Trump administration and the Department of Health and Human Services in this pro-life pursuit.

Kimberly Ross is a senior contributor at RedState and a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.