The chief govt of America’s oldest pro-life group advised Fox Information Digital that President Donald Trump’s FDA nominee, Dr. Heidi Overton, might convey renewed scrutiny to mifepristone, the abortion drug on the heart of an ongoing federal security overview.
John Mize, CEO of Individuals United for Life (AUL), mentioned he has had 5 or 6 conversations with Overton, who is understood for her pro-life views. She at the moment serves as Trump’s deputy assistant for home coverage.
“I feel she’s going to convey objectivity to the problem of mifepristone in a means that may expose this drug for the injury it causes ladies,” Mize mentioned in an interview on Friday, including that his group is “optimistic” that Overton will likely be a “pro-life FDA commissioner.”
Overton’s nomination comes simply weeks after an 18-year-old girl in North Carolina was accused of utilizing mifepristone and misoprostol to terminate a being pregnant at 31 weeks, properly past mifepristone’s FDA-approved restrict of 10 weeks.
Mize has led AUL for two-and-a-half years. The nonprofit has advocated in opposition to abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide and different practices it considers threats to human life since its founding in 1971.
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Mize mentioned he believes Overton is the “proper candidate” to steer the FDA, citing her expertise in authorities, scientific drugs and medical analysis. If confirmed, Overton would take the reins of the company accountable for regulating abortion treatment, together with mifepristone.
Mifepristone carries an FDA boxed warning, the company’s strongest security warning, for the chance of significant and generally deadly infections or bleeding.
Prompted initially by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the FDA stopped implementing the drug’s in-person allotting requirement in 2021 and later eliminated it completely after reviewing the out there security knowledge.
Underneath present FDA guidelines, sufferers don’t essentially need to see a doctor in individual earlier than receiving a prescription, permitting mifepristone to be prescribed after telehealth go to and mailed by an authorized pharmacy. Mize desires these guidelines tightened.
“Dr. Overton and I share a really comparable perspective that the drug is harmful, significantly in an unregulated means for girls,” Mize advised Fox Information Digital. “I firmly imagine she understands the scientific implications of taking a drug with a black field warning and now delivery it within the mail.”
Overton has publicly criticized mifepristone and different abortion medicine, which accounted for about 65% of clinician-provided abortions in 2023, in response to the Guttmacher Institute, up from 53% in 2020 earlier than the Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade.
In a February 2023 coverage transient for the America First Coverage Institute, a MAGA-aligned assume tank the place she beforehand served as chief coverage officer, Overton denounced federal policymakers for increasing entry to abortion tablets.
She additionally accused the Biden administration of utilizing the COVID-19 pandemic to wrongly justify permitting mifepristone and misoprostol, a drug that induces early labor, to be despatched to sufferers via the mail.
Taken collectively, the 2 medicine terminate early pregnancies: mifepristone blocks progesterone, a hormone wanted to maintain the being pregnant, whereas misoprostol causes contractions that expel the fetus.
“Abortion is corrosive to youngsters, ladies, and society broadly as a result of it devalues and extinguishes harmless human life,” she wrote on the time. “America First insurance policies ought to give attention to instantly halting the trouble to normalize abortion-on-demand and on broadly recognizing the proof of the chance posed to ladies.”
Mize pointed to a 2025 examine by the Ethics and Public Coverage Middle, a conservative assume tank, that analyzed insurance coverage claims from 865,727 mifepristone abortions between 2017 and 2023 and located a severe hostile occasion charge of practically 11%. This included situations akin to hemorrhaging, sepsis or an infection.
The examine obtained instant pushback, with the medical neighborhood saying it used a flawed methodology. The paper was additionally not peer-reviewed or printed in a medical journal, elements Mize mentioned Overton is conscious of.
“It’s not the entire image, and Dr. Overton would say that,” Mize mentioned. “But it surely’s an necessary indicator as to what’s occurring in the true world. So I imagine she’s going to do a very good job of evaluating the examine.”
Mize mentioned he hopes Overton will impose tighter restrictions on mifepristone after reviewing the proof, doubtlessly restoring a requirement that ladies see a physician in individual earlier than receiving a prescription.
He described Overton as “measured” and “methodical” whereas cautioning that pro-life advocates shouldn’t count on her to pursue instant, sweeping modifications on the FDA.
“I don’t get the sense that she’s gonna transfer rapidly on points,” Mize mentioned.
Dr. Marty Makary, the earlier FDA commissioner, resigned in Could after clashing with Trump administration officers and Republican lawmakers. He additionally drew criticism from pro-life activists, who accused the company underneath his management of slow-walking its security overview of mifepristone.
If confirmed, Overton would inherit the overview, which was formally introduced in September 2025 and doesn’t have a scheduled completion date. The FDA has famous these kind of research usually take a yr or longer to conduct.
After that overview is accomplished, Mize mentioned the subsequent step for Overton, ideally, can be “a long term, deep dive analysis on this treatment to find out if it ought to even be in the marketplace.”
Mize acknowledged that not all of the proof is in but however made clear that his choice can be to take mifepristone off the market.
“From my perspective, any treatment that denies somebody the chance to dwell and kills a human being shouldn’t be one thing that we’re selling amongst the FDA,” Mize mentioned. “Finally, I might like to see this drug faraway from the marketplace for these causes. Culturally, we’d not be there proper now.”
Overton’s affirmation listening to has not but been scheduled however is anticipated to happen after the Senate returns from its summer time recess on Sept. 14.
