FDA Nominee Overton Tells Senate All US Vaccines and the Abortion Pill Are Safe, Contradicting Trump's Own Claims

Since Dr. Marty Makary resigned as FDA commissioner in May, partly over a fight with Trump about fruit-flavored vapes, the agency has run under acting commissioner Kyle Diamantas while losing more than 3,000 staff, according to Reuters. Thursday's Senate confirmation hearing for Trump's pick to fill that vacancy, Dr. Heidi Overton, put those cracks on full display.

Overton, 37, a preventive medicine physician and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Trump nominated her in August, calling her a "ROCKSTAR" in his administration, according to ABC News. She previously served as chief policy officer at the America First Policy Institute and was a White House fellow during Trump's first term.

At the hearing, Overton repeatedly affirmed positions that contradict statements Trump himself has made. She told Committee Chairman Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., that the MMR vaccine "is not lethal" and is "safe and effective," and that "every vaccine on the U.S. market right now are safe and effective, according to the FDA," according to Reuters and ABC News. That directly breaks with Trump's remarks last month when he signed an executive order calling for splitting the combined MMR shot into three separate doses. At that point he said the vaccine "could be" quite lethal, according to FactCheck.org as cited by BioSpace.

On abortion, Overton told senators mifepristone "has met the safety and efficacy determinations of the FDA," according to the LA Times. She also said she has seen no evidence that Tylenol use during pregnancy causes autism, per Scientific American. Another claim that puts her at odds with the administration she serves.

What she would not do is criticize Trump directly. Asked whether the president can ever be wrong, Overton said only that he "sets the policy directions, but he works with all of his advisors to get the best information," according to Scientific American.

Cassidy's Grievance With Kennedy

Cassidy, a physician himself, used his opening statement to recount how Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made commitments to the committee during his own 2025 confirmation hearing and later broke them under presidential pressure. "Secretary Kennedy gave me guarantees. Later, he did not keep those," Cassidy said, according to BioSpace. He pressed Overton on what she would do if Trump directed her to violate a promise she made to the committee.

Overton did not commit to defying Trump. "I would give him my best advice, and I would follow the statutory requirements for the role of FDA commissioner regarding individual product determinations for safety and efficacy," she said, according to the Epoch Times.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the committee's ranking member, was blunter. "Based on the work you've done to advance this administration's agenda, I have serious concerns about your nomination to be commissioner," he said, per BioSpace. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., pressed her on why she didn't push back when Trump called the vaccine order "historic" at the August signing. She did not directly answer, repeating that the current MMR vaccine is safe and effective.

An FDA commissioner who won't say the president she works for was ever wrong, while sitting atop an agency built on independent scientific review, is a legitimate structural worry for senators of either party. It is also true that Overton, under oath, chose scientific accuracy over political loyalty on three separate claims Thursday. Those aren't small things for a nominee whose career has been built inside Trump-aligned institutions.

The Abortion Pill Fight Isn't Settled

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., pressed Overton on her personal views, noting Overton wrote in 2023 that medication abortion was "dangerous to women" and described mail delivery of mifepristone as "chemical abortion on demand," according to the LA Times and NBC News. Overton sidestepped, saying only that the drug "has met the safety and efficacy standard according to the FDA review." Murray called that response "alarming."

Meanwhile Kennedy's FDA-ordered safety review of mifepristone, launched last year, remains open. The FDA said in June it started a new safety study, according to NBC News. Officials have disclosed almost nothing about its scope or timeline.

Cassidy, whose vote is essential to Overton's confirmation, called her support for Trump's vaccine-splitting order "almost disqualifying" even as he found more common ground with her on tightening mifepristone rules, according to PBS. Two moderate Republicans on the panel, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have previously broken from the party on abortion policy, and their votes remain the biggest open question as the committee moves toward deciding Overton's nomination.