Trump taps anti-abortion advocate Heidi Overton for FDA chief
Washington Examiner · RC · trust 68/100
President Donald Trump said he is nominating Dr. Heidi Overton, a White House health policy adviser and a strong anti-abortion advocate, to lead the Food and Drug Administration .
Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday afternoon that Overton “is SMART and RESPECTED by all!”
“Dr. Heidi has been a ROCKSTAR in my administration, where she has worked directly with Secretary Kennedy, Dr. Oz, and team, to deliver on the MOST TRANSFORMATIVE Health Agenda in History,” the president wrote.
Overton has been a prominent face at several White House events, such as Trump’s executive order signing last week to shrink the childhood vaccine schedule and the launch of the Moms.gov website boasting resources for new parents .
Anti-abortion groups praised Overton on Wednesday before the nomination was made official, saying that she will be a key ally in increasing restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone.
Anti-abortion advocacy groups have applied heavy political pressure on Trump administration officials, including Dr. Marty Makary, the former commissioner, and acting Commissioner Kyle Diamantas, to end online sales of abortion drugs by reinstating in-person screening requirements for dispensing them.
Overton attended the 2025 March for Life rally alongside Vice President JD Vance and has been in charge of the White House’s anti-abortion and pro-family policy agenda.
Lila Rose, head of the anti-abortion group Live Action, said on X that Overton’s nomination marks “a chance to restore trust and put health over politics.” Americans United for Life also endorsed Overton.
Dr. Heidi Overton, deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, speaks about IVF during an event in the Oval Office of the White House with President Donald Trump, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Overton is a longtime ally of the president. She was a White House fellow on health policy during the last year of the first Trump administration. She served as the head of health policy at the MAGA-aligned America First Policy Institute from 2021 to 2025 before taking her current domestic policy role in the White House.
Overton earned her medical degree in 2013 from the University of New Mexico and did her post-graduation training at Johns Hopkins University. She is board-certified in public health and general preventive medicine and holds a doctorate in clinical investigation from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
While at Johns Hopkins, Overton worked with Makary on a study examining opioid use guidelines and co-wrote a 2017 op-ed blaming surgeons’ prescribing practices for exacerbating the opioid crisis.
Selecting Overton comes roughly three months after Makary was ousted from the FDA following a clash with Trump regarding approval of flavored vaping products that critics say are too attractive to minors.
Before he left his post, Makary came under fire from the pharmaceutical industry for mismanaging the agency, making it harder to get new treatments and drugs on the market.
Diamantas , the former head of the FDA’s Human Foods program, has served as acting head of the agency since Makary was terminated. In that brief time, Diamantas has overseen proposed changes to food ingredient safety standards as part of the Make America Healthy Again agenda.
Trump said Overton “is known to take on the HARDEST issues and bring me solutions that work best for the Country.”
“We need her leadership at the FDA now to ensure that the U.S. remains the WORLD LEADER for Scientific Discovery and CURES,” Trump said.
Overton will require Senate confirmation to assume the post of FDA commissioner.
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