Pro-life campaign bankroller leans on senators to block FDA nominee unless abortion pill restricted

After repeatedly warning the White House that President Trump's pro-life base might not turn out for midterm elections if his Food and Drug Administration refused to junk the Biden administration's loosened restrictions on an abortion pill, a major pro-life campaign bankroller is leaning on senators to hold up Trump's FDA nominee until it gets long-sought mifepristone "reforms."

“Confirmation is not a coronation," Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Senior Vice President of Legal Strategy Erik Baptist said Wednesday regarding the nomination of Heidi Overton, who has been targeted by both right and left.

"Before Heidi Overton’s nomination moves forward, senators must secure commitments from the administration that it will immediately restore the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone and address the serious flaws with the FDA’s mifepristone safety study," he said.

The demands follow the Justice Department's repeated refusal to settle a lawsuit by Louisiana challenging the mail-order regulations for mifepristone, which make it easy to circumvent pro-life law, and the government's belated disclosure of the FDA's protocol for the mifepristone safety study, which pro-life groups portray as a sham.

"As long as this [mail-order] policy remains in effect, any pregnant woman is vulnerable to a third party obtaining abortion drugs and using them against her wishes," Baptist said. "The FDA’s safety study must be rigorous, transparent, and grounded in the highest-quality data."

Baptist recently notified Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that even The New York Times was highlighting the misuse of mifepristone to cause unwanted abortions, in that case a civil lawsuit against a former West Point cadet who already pleaded guilty in criminal proceedings to using his girlfriend's ID to order abortion pills, drugging her and administering the pills, leading to miscarriage and hospitalization.

"Secretary Kennedy, you possess clear statutory authority to protect women from this growing form of abuse," Baptist wrote, noting the Justice Department agreed in court that Kennedy has such authority.