The chief executive of America's oldest pro-life organization told Fox News Digital that President Donald Trump's FDA nominee, Dr. Heidi Overton, could bring renewed scrutiny to mifepristone, the abortion drug at the center of an ongoing federal safety review. John Mize, CEO of Americans United for Life (AUL), said he has had five or six conversations with Overton, who is known for her pro-life views.
She currently serves as Trump's deputy assistant for domestic policy. "I think she's going to bring objectivity to the issue of mifepristone in a way that will expose this drug for the damage it causes women," Mize said in an interview on Friday, adding that his organization is "optimistic" that Overton will be a "pro-life FDA commissioner." Overton's nomination comes just weeks after an 18-year-old woman in North Carolina was accused of using mifepristone and misoprostol to terminate a pregnancy at 31 weeks, well beyond mifepristone's FDA-approved limit of 10 weeks. HAWLEY INTRODUCES BILL TO STRIP FDA APPROVAL FROM 'INHERENTLY DANGEROUS' ABORTION PILL Mize has led AUL for two-and-a-half years, but the nonprofit has advocated against abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide and other practices it considers threats to human life since its founding in 1971.
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Mize said he believes Overton is the "right candidate" to lead the FDA, citing her experience in government, clinical medicine and medical research. If confirmed, Overton would take the reins of the agency responsible for regulating abortion medication, including mifepristone.
Mifepristone carries an FDA boxed warning, the agency’s strongest safety warning, for the risk of serious and sometimes fatal infections or bleeding. Prompted initially by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the FDA stopped enforcing the drug's in-person dispensing requirement in 2021 and later removed it permanently after reviewing the available safety data. Under current FDA rules, patients do not necessarily have to see a physician in person before receiving a prescription, allowing mifepristone to be prescribed after telehealth visit and mailed by a certified pharmacy.
Mize wants those rules tightened. SUPREME COURT TEMPORARILY BLOCKS APPEALS COURT RULING ON ABORTION PILL, RESTORES WIDER ACCESS TO DRUG "Dr. Overton and I share a very similar perspective that the drug is dangerous, particularly in an unregulated way for women," Mize told Fox News Digital.
"I firmly believe she understands the clinical implications of taking a drug with a black box warning and now shipping it in the mail." Overton has publicly criticized mifepristone and other abortion drugs, which accounted for about 65% of clinician-provided abortions in 2023, according to the Guttmacher Institute, up from 53% in 2020 before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. In a February 2023 policy brief for the America First Policy Institute, a MAGA-aligned think tank where she previously served as chief policy officer, Overton denounced federal policymakers for expanding access to abortion pills. She also accused the Biden administration of using the COVID-19 pandemic to wrongly justify allowing mifepristone and misoprostol, a drug that induces early labor, to be sent to patients through the mail.
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