In the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s appointment of Dr. Heidi Overton, a medical doctor with a history of fighting for life, as head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), pro-life groups are urging her to end mail-order abortion.
Since January 2025 and up until now, Overton has worked as deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy. Before that, she spent more than three years at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a conservative think tank.
On Aug. 19, Trump appointed her to head the FDA, though she will need to be confirmed by the Senate first, which is likely given the Republican majority.
She has a doctorate in clinical investigation from Johnson Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as well as a medical degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
Overton has been outspoken about the dangers of chemical abortion for women and babies, according to a 2023 AFPI brief she authored where she criticized federal policy that made abortion pills available via telehealth.
“Abortion is corrosive to children, women, and society broadly because it devalues and extinguishes innocent human life,” Overton wrote in 2023. “Unfortunately, federal policymakers have recently expanded access to abortion pills, also called chemical abortions, which are far more dangerous to women, enabling rapid access to abortion.”
About two-thirds of abortions in the United States are chemical, meaning they happen via mifepristone and misoprostol pills. These pills are available via mail in any state, even states where these drugs are illegal. Abortion by mail is highly unregulated, creating danger for female patients.
The abortion pill has continued to be left largely unregulated by Trump’s Food and Drug Administration, in spite of the documented danger to women, including coercion, poisonings, and physical harm.
Advocates for unborn children highlight the importance of opposing chemical abortions and protecting unborn children across state lines, as chemical abortion pills make state pro-life laws moot.
Hope for limitations on chemical abortions
Leading voices for life agree that the FDA should regulate mail-order chemical abortions. After being deeply disappointed so far by Trump’s FDA, they hope Overton is the woman for the task.
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), an organization of medical doctors who believe in protecting unborn children and their mothers, “applauds the nomination,” said CEO Dr. Christina Francis.
“Dr. Overton has a track record of recognizing the dignity of all of our patients (including our fetal patients) and recognizing the value of life-affirming healthcare,” Francis told EWTN News.
“We are hopeful that Dr. Overton will reinstate vital safeguards around the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone,” Francis said. “Too many tragic incidents continue to pile up in which women have been left to handle the consequences of these potentially fatal drugs on their own.”
“As physicians, we demand the FDA do its job and reinstate essential safeguards for our patients,” Francis said.
Live Action, a group seeking to shift the culture and law on abortion, also viewed the nomination positively.
“Live Action is encouraged by President Trump’s nomination of Dr. Heidi Overton to lead the Food and Drug Administration,” said Live Action spokesman Noah Brandt.
“During Dr. Overton’s time at the America First Policy Institute, she helped lead important work exposing the dangers of chemical abortion and the serious risks posed by the abortion pill,” Brandt told EWTN News.
“We pray that if Dr. Overton is confirmed that she brings that same courage and leadership to the FDA, which has an enormous responsibility to protect the health and safety of America’s women and children,” Brandt said.
Brandt called on Overton to put a halt to chemical abortion pills entirely, beginning with mail-order abortions.
“If confirmed, Dr. Overton should pull the deadly abortion pill from the market completely by first ending mail-order abortions, which are killing babies across the country,” he said.
Kristi Hamrick, spokeswoman for Students for Life Action, called for Overton to take serious action against mifepristone.
“It’s a good thing to have a nominee who has been skeptical of the kinds of policies the FDA has been pushing, but we are not looking for words; we are looking for deeds,” Hamrick told EWTN News. “The reckless rubber-stamping of chemical abortion pills has implications for babies in the womb, their mothers, and even the environment.”
“We are looking for a first-ever review of chemical abortion pills, the abusers’ dream drug, that is now being mailed illegally into many states with pro-life laws in place,” Hamrick said.
Hamrick also urged Overton to investigate the environmental impact of chemical abortion drugs in the nation’s drinking water supplies.
“The FDA has never looked into the environmental risks of allowing abortion water pollution nationwide, and you donʼt have to be pro-life to want clean drinking water,” Hamrick said.
“We would ask Dr. Overton to do the work never done before — really evaluate mifepristone, its distribution, and risks to babies, women, and all life, endangered species included,” Hamrick said.
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