Dr. Heidi Overton, Donald Trump’s transphobic nominee for commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), avoided answering senators’ questions on Thursday about whether she agrees with the Trump administration’s numerous untrue medical claims, including claims that contraceptive intrauterine devices (IUDs) cause abortions.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) asked Overton twice if she agreed with the administration’s claim, made last year, that IUDs are abortifacients (substances that intentionally induce abortions or miscarriages).
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Overton avoided answering the question, leading Murray to say, “The prospect of an FDA commissioner who doesn’t know that birth control isn’t an abortion is outrageous and should be deeply alarming to all Americans.”
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When Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) asked Overton if it was ever possible for Trump to be wrong, Overton avoided answering, saying instead that she has had “robust” discussions with the president.
Hassan pointed out that, at an August 10 press conference, Trump said that there’s a possibility that the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine that is regularly given to children as a single injection “could be lethal.”
Overton responded by calling the MMR vaccine “safe and effective” and “our best current tool” to combat the contemporary measles outbreak. When asked again, though, whether the president was wrong, Overton repeated her initial response.
Frustrated, Hassan said, “This is an important issue because the American people need a leader at the FDA who is able to say that the president is wrong when he is, especially when it comes to medicine for kids.”
When Overton repeated her initial repsonse a third time, Hassan said, “I wish it wasn’t so difficult for members of the administration to just plainly say that the president’s wrong, and it’s really concerning to me that you are equivocating on it here — he was wrong about that.”
Under questioning from other senators, Overton refused to contradict untrue Trump administration claims that Americans play the lowest prices on prescription drugs anywhere in the world, that the MMR vaccine would be safer if administered as three separate injections, and that chemicals from birth control medications contaminate drinking water.
On the last claim, Overton said that, if confirmed, she would investigate the effect of the drug on the environment. A senator pointed out that birth control drugs have been available in the US for over 65 years and that the FDA already has studies and environmental impact reports from contraceptive medication developers to help definitively answer the question.
In 2024, Overton wrote a Newsweek op-ed in which she criticized documents from the Biden-Harris administration using the transgender-inclusive term “birthing people” to refer to pregnant individuals. In the op-ed, she also claimed that left-wing scientists created the Journal of Adolescent Transgender Medicine (a publication that does not actually exist) to fabricate medical evidence supporting gender-affirming care for trans youth.
Overton also published a February 2023 document, entitled “Gender Transition Medications and Surgeries for Children in the U.S.,” published by the right-wing America First Policy Institute (AFPI). The now-deleted report criticized the availability of gender-affirming medical care for trans youth in the US, characterizing the nation’s laws as overly permissive.
The report asserted that there is limited research regarding the long-term effects of transgender interventions on minors and minimal evidence proving their mental health benefits; overstated potential risks associated with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, such as infertility, stunted growth, and decreased bone density; and stated that only 12% to 27% of children diagnosed with gender dysphoria carry the condition into adulthood, a claim that some researchers say is based on faulty studies.
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