FDA nominee backs measles vaccine but sidesteps questions on abortion pill

Dr. Heidi Overton, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration, told senators Thursday that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is safe and effective, but declined to say whether Trump was wrong to call it “lethal” weeks earlier.

“The measles vaccine is not lethal,” Overton said during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. She called the vaccine “our best tool right now in the public health response to the measles outbreak.” The Guardian reported that the United States is recording its highest number of measles cases since 1991.

Overton, a White House domestic policy official, also faced repeated questions about the abortion pill mifepristone and the FDA’s authorization of flavored vaping products. Senators sought to establish whether she would depart from the president’s positions when they conflict with the agency’s conclusions.

Asked whether any vaccine on the U.S. market was unsafe, Overton said: “Every vaccine on the US market right now is safe and effective according to the FDA.” But she would not directly say whether Trump was wrong when he suggested in August that the MMR shot could be “quite lethal.” Overton stood alongside him when he announced an executive order aimed at reducing the number of vaccines routinely recommended for children, according to NBC News.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the committee, asked what Overton would do if Trump pressed her to break her assurances on vaccine safety. “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 replied. The Guardian reported that Cassidy had described her role in the vaccine order as “almost disqualifying.”

Overton was similarly guarded on mifepristone, which the FDA is reviewing amid Republican pressure to tighten access. Cassidy has urged the administration to reverse a Biden-era policy allowing the drug to be prescribed through telemedicine and mailed to patients. Asked by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., whether she agreed with the FDA’s conclusion that mifepristone is safe and effective, Overton said only that it “was approved by the FDA as having met its safety and efficacy standard.”

Before joining the White House, Overton was chief policy officer at the conservative America First Policy Institute. NBC News reported that she had described medication abortion as “dangerous to women” and called for strict restrictions. The Guardian reported that she criticized policies permitting abortion pills by mail and wrote that abortion “is corrosive to children, women, and society broadly.”

Senators also challenged Overton over flavored vapes. NBC News reported that the FDA authorized several fruit-flavored products in May after Trump met with tobacco executives. The Guardian reported that Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, questioned an August authorization of flavored vapes and nicotine pouches, citing blueberry, mango and cappuccino products and saying nearly 90% of young e-cigarette users choose flavored products.

Overton said career FDA staff recommended the authorizations and that flavors could help some adults quit smoking. She pledged to protect children from vaping products and crack down on illicit vapes, particularly those from China. She did not address questions about Trump’s meeting with tobacco executives or his financial ties to the industry, NBC News reported.

In her opening statement, Overton pledged to speed drug development and make the FDA “the agency of the possible, rather than the impossible.” If confirmed, the 37-year-old would be the agency’s youngest commissioner, according to The Guardian.