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Court Lets US Abortion Pill Access Continue—Until Trump FDA Finishes Review Condemned as 'Sham'
A federal judge opted not to rule on a lawsuit seeking to overturn FDA approval of mifepristone until the FDA completes a review that has been described as a political pretext to restrict abortion.
Aug 31, 2026
Access to the abortion drug mifepristone will remain unchanged in the US for now after a federal district judge on Sunday paused a lawsuit aimed at overturning the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the medication. But he left the door open for the Trump administration to restrict access to the drug.
US District Judge Reed O'Connor of the Northern District of Texas refused the manufacturer's motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Texas and Florida seeking to overturn FDA approval of mifepristone altogether. But the judge accepted the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) motion to stay the case until December 1, or until the FDA completes a "review" of the drug that it will use to determine whether access to it should be tightened.
That FDA review, spearheaded by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been criticized as a politicized effort to create a pretext for the anti-abortion Trump administration to restrict abortion pill access, including in states where the procedure is legal.
Nearly 700,000 people use mifepristone per year, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which has found it to be the method for the majority of US abortions in recent years.
Receiving it through the mail via out-of-state telehealth providers has become a go-to method for those in states with bans on terminating a pregnancy. The drug has been used by around 7.5 million people since it was first approved in 2000.
The FDA's own current webpage states that its periodic reviews of mifepristone have “not identified any new safety concerns” and that the drug is safe when used as directed. Prior FDA reviews have found that hospitalization occurs in only 0.04-0.6% of all medication abortions.
Despite the lack of any clearly identified risk, the Trump FDA has said that the ongoing review could lead to “substantive changes" to the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy for the drug, leading some to argue that it is a "sham" meant to create a scientific justification for the administration's goal of restricting abortion.
"Ensuring legal access to mifepristone in the long term is vital to women’s healthcare and reproductive freedom," said Evan Masingill, the CEO of GenBioPro, which manufactures generic mifepristone and sued to defend the FDA's approval of its product.
"We expect the FDA’s review of mifepristone to not contradict the decision they made in 2023 that reaffirmed our product is safe and effective," Masingill said.
The US Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that lower courts could not block the FDA's 2023 decision, under the Biden administration, to lift in-person dispensing requirements for mifepristone following the overturning of Roe v. Wade the previous year. The in-person requirement was lifted following a 2021 FDA review that deemed the rules unnecessary.
The Supreme Court has previously blocked individual anti-abortion doctors from bringing lawsuits against the FDA, ruling that they did not have standing to claim personal injury.
But Texas and Florida have sought to get around this by suing as states, and so far, courts have allowed them to do so. The conservative 5th Circuit accepted a similar argument from Louisiana earlier this year.
However, O'Connor—an appointee of former President George W. Bush—did not rule on the merits of whether the states' claims against the FDA were correct.
But even if that lawsuit fails, the Trump administration could dramatically curtail access to mifepristone by reinstating in-person dispensing requirements, placing new limits on which pharmacies can dispense the drug, and adding new requirements for prescribers and patients.
“The FDA has affirmed time and again that mifepristone is safe and effective,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward, which is representing the drugmaker. “Far-right, anti-science extremists may be pressuring the Trump-Vance administration to reach a different, ideologically-driven outcome, but we will continue to represent our clients to hold the FDA to the same science-based standards it has long applied to protect people’s ability to access effective, evidence-based healthcare, including protecting access to medication abortion.”
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'RFK Jr. Lied to Congress': Criminal Probe Sought Over Samoa Trip Linked to 83 Measles Deaths
"He told us his Samoa trip had nothing to do with vaccines—now this letter shows that was false," Sen. Ed Markey said of President Donald Trump's health and human services secretary.
Aug 27, 2026
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday faced calls for a criminal investigation after newly published documents appear to contradict his repeated testimony during Senate confirmation hearings that his 2019 trip to Samoa, which is linked to 83 measles deaths, “had nothing to do with vaccines.”
The advocacy group American Oversight on Thursday asked the US Department of Justice to investigate whether Kennedy knowingly made materially false statements during his 2025 Senate confirmation hearings. The request follows the publication of a January 2019 letter, signed by Kennedy and addressed to Samoa’s then-prime minister, Tuilaʻepa Saʻilele Malielegaoi, that explicitly proposed a vaccine-focused assessment of the Pacific island nation’s measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) program.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeatedly testified before two separate Senate committees that his trip to Samoa had nothing to do with vaccines. But a letter he wrote to Samoa’s prime minister six years earlier appears to contradict that testimony,” American Oversight executive director Chioma Chukwu said Thursday in a statement.
“Congress relies on truthful testimony to do its job, particularly on matters as consequential as public health," Chukwu added. "If Kennedy lied to the Senate while seeking confirmation as the nation’s top health official, the Justice Department must investigate and hold him accountable.”
Questioned by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) before the Senate Finance Committee, Kennedy said his trip had “nothing to do with vaccines,” describing it instead as an effort to introduce a medical informatics system to digitize the nation's health records.
The following day, when Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) pressed him on the same issue before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Kennedy again said his trip had “nothing to do with vaccines.”
Markey's office released a statement Thursday noting that Kennedy "traveled to Samoa in 2019 to promote disinformation about the measles vaccine. Shortly after his trip, Samoa experienced a deadly outbreak of measles that killed over 80 people and has been attributed to mass vaccine disinformation."
My statement on new reporting that RFK Jr. lied to me in his Senate confirmation hearing.
[image or embed]
— Senator Ed Markey (@markey.senate.gov) August 27, 2026 at 1:47 PM
Of the 83 measles deaths during the outbreak, 72 were children under the age of 5. More than 1,860 hospitalizations in Samoa have been linked to the outbreak.
“New documents confirm what we already knew: RFK Jr. lied to Congress," Markey said. "He told us his Samoa trip had nothing to do with vaccines—now this letter shows that was false, just like it was false when he denied his role in the deadly outbreak that followed."
"This is a pattern, not a slip," he added. "RFK Jr. has lied to the Senate, lied to the American people, and jeopardized the health of children to advance his anti-vaccine agenda. He should never have been confirmed, and he cannot be trusted to run [the US Department of Health and Human Services] for even one more day."
Democratic Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, who is a physician, was invited by the Samoan government to help lead the measles response and recovery in the South Pacific archipelago.
“Misinformation and measles are a deadly combination—I saw that firsthand in Samoa," Green said on Thursday. "The truth is, this is a disease we know how to prevent. The MMR shot is the only proven and effective way to prevent the spread of measles."
"Vaccines save lives," he added. "Our public health decisions must be guided by doctors, scientists, and evidence—not conspiracy theories or political convenience. We owe it to every family to protect our children and communities, and make sure no one else dies from a preventable disease.”
The group 314 Action, which recruits, trains, and works to elect Democrats with expertise in science, published a statement Thursday noting that "now, America is facing its worst measles crisis in decades, and two more Americans have lost their lives to a disease we have long known how to prevent."
Public health experts have warned that the US is on track to lose its measles elimination status, which the country achieved in 2000, and blame the regression on declining vaccination driven by misinformation and conspiracy theories, including that vaccines are dangerous and even deadly.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order overhauling federal recommendations for children that calls for separating the MMR vaccine into three individual shots.
"The only thing ‘lethal’ about vaccines is listening to RFK Jr.’s lies about them," said 314 Action. "America needs more leaders like Gov. Green who are willing to stand up to Trump and RFK Jr. and put public health over politics. We won’t stop fighting until RFK Jr. is fired or removed from office.”
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RFK Jr. Dismisses Impact of SNAP Cuts as Data Shows 5 Million People Have Lost Aid
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the head of the US Health and Human Services Department, said he doesn't think the Republican Party's unprecedented cuts to food aid would have "that much effect."
Aug 27, 2026
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday dismissed the impact of massive food aid cuts signed into law last summer by President Donald Trump, saying he doesn't believe the cuts will have "that much effect" as new data showed at least 5 million people have lost assistance so far—including roughly 1.5 million children.
Speaking at a news conference on children's nutrition in Florida, Kennedy falsely claimed that "the only people kicked off of" the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) under the GOP budget law signed by Trump "were people who were not eligible for it," either "because their income is too high or because they were illegal aliens."
Kennedy's remarks came as a new analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) found that SNAP enrollment nationwide has fallen to a 17-year low following enactment of the Trump-GOP budget law, which will cut the program by around $190 billion over the next decade, enact stricter work reporting mandates, and require states to contribute a portion of benefit costs for the first time.
"'Not much effect?' Based on available data from 25 states, we estimate that well over 1.5 million kids nationwide have lost SNAP in the wake of the unprecedented cuts in the Republican reconciliation law," Katie Bergh, a policy analyst at CBPP, wrote in response to Kennedy's remarks. "Many of those kids and their families lost SNAP despite still being eligible."
Watch Kennedy's comments:
Q: “Are either of you concerned that the reduction in funding for SNAP and the reduction in eligibility for SNAP will reduce access to food for children and families?”
Sec. Kennedy: “I don't think it's gonna have that much effect.” pic.twitter.com/1h97NP6rcN
— BulwarkClips (@BulwarkClips) August 26, 2026
News reports, anecdotal accounts from impacted families, and expert assessments contradict Kennedy's insistence that only those who were no longer eligible for SNAP due to income or immigration status have lost benefits. An explosion of red tape due to the new work reporting requirements imposed by the Trump-GOP budget law has made it more difficult for eligible beneficiaries to continue receiving SNAP, forcing many to seek aid from food banks and take desperate measures—such as skipping meals and doses of medication—to make ends meet.
CBPP warned that the impacts of the cuts are likely to intensify once the budget law's provision shifting benefit costs to states takes full effect next year.
"The magnitude of the cost shift and the urgency surrounding error rates may incentivize states to take drastic measures to reduce their payment error rates quickly and cut program costs, even if it means delaying or improperly denying benefits to eligible people," the think tank said on Wednesday. "We’re likely seeing some of those initial effects in SNAP participation data."
A report published last month by a pair of food policy experts argued that the unprecedented assault on SNAP undercuts Kennedy's so-called "Make America Healthy Again" initiative, which purports to place nutrition "at the center of health."
“If we are serious about improving Americans’ health, we need policies that make healthy food more accessible, not less,” said Priya Fielding-Singh of George Washington University’s Global Food Institute. “Cutting off food assistance for millions of families undermines MAHA’s stated goals of improving diet quality and preventing chronic disease. Food security and public health go hand in hand.”
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'Still Crickets': Warren Reminds RFK Jr. of Pledge to Publish Secret Trump Deals With Big Pharma
"Why should Americans believe this isn't just another Trump handout to fatten Big Pharma's pockets?"
Aug 26, 2026
Nearly two weeks after US Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote to the Trump administration's top health official in her latest attempt to get answers on "secret pricing deals" with Big Pharma, the Massachusetts Democrat said Wednesday that she is still waiting for the White House to make the terms of the agreements public.
On social media, Warren noted that she asked Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to publicize the deals for medicines listed on President Donald Trump's direct-to-consumer website, TrumpRx, at a hearing in April.
"Will you make the deals available to us so we can see them, a little transparency?" the senator had asked.
Kennedy replied that he would be "happy to make the deals available except for proprietary information and trade secrets."
But as the agreements have appeared to do little to reduce drug costs, Kennedy responded to Warren's request in writing without providing "copies of the questionable agreements" or answers to her questions about "unproven claims that the website is saving patients money," the senator noted.
Instead, Kennedy's response raised "fresh questions about whether the Trump administration’s savings estimates are reliable."
Months after her initial request, Warren said Wednesday, "still crickets."
"Why should Americans believe this isn't just another Trump handout to fatten Big Pharma's pockets?" she asked.
As Common Dreams reported last week, experts have pointed to the Biden administration's policy allowing Medicare to directly negotiate the prices of some drugs as the major driver of falling prescription prices, which dropped 3.1% over the past year.
But Trump has claimed that the "most favored nation" deals his administration negotiated with 17 pharmaceutical companies were behind the falling prices, despite the fact that just one aspect of his MFN policy—TrumpRx—has been enacted, and the website has only been found to deliver savings on one out of 54 listed medications.
"While TrumpRx has since added a wider selection of generic drugs and added some information about generic alternatives to select pages, not every brand drug on TrumpRx with an existing generic alternative has that alternative readily available on the site, and a recent analysis finds that the TrumpRx deals represent only around 12% of brand drugs made by participating Big Pharma companies," wrote Warren to Kennedy on August 13. "Thus, consumers still risk overpaying for branded drugs despite the availability of cheaper generics."
She added that the administration recently made the "unfounded claim that TrumpRx has already saved more than $700 million for American patients," while saving the average user of prescription medications only about $5.
"Your response to me raises questions about whether even that estimate was made up out of thin air," wrote Warren, noting that Kennedy had admitted TrumpRx “does not store any patient, health, or prescription information."
She emphasized that drug manufacturers who signed the MFN deals with Trump "have benefited from huge tariff exemptions for branded drugs and received vouchers to fast-track approvals for new products. That is on top of billion-dollar handouts President Trump and Republicans in Congress gave to the pharmaceutical industry last year in their tax law."
"This is a huge win for giant drug companies that will reap billions in additional revenues from higher prices abroad, while doing absolutely nothing to lower drug prices for Americans in need," wrote the senator. "Americans are paying more on everything from school supplies to furniture thanks to Trump’s across-the-board tariffs, and instead of negotiating deals to help workers and American families, he’s using that leverage to go to bat for Big Pharma."
"Americans deserve to know whether the deals the administration is cutting with Big Pharma will lower their prescription drug costs—or just further enrich big drug companies," said Warren. "Despite my request that you make the administration’s MFN deals with giant drug companies public, and your commitment to do so, you have yet to follow through."
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‘How Many More People Need to Die?’ Calls for RFK Jr. to Resign Grow After Two Measles Deaths
"RFK Jr. must resign or be fired. Vaccines are safe and effective. Listen to your pediatrician," said US Sen. Angela Alsobrooks.
Aug 25, 2026
The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Tuesday announced that the state recently suffered its first two measles-related deaths in 35 years.
The two individuals who died were unvaccinated residents of Lancaster County, according to Pennsylvania DOH. The department has confirmed nearly 400 measles cases across the state so far in 2026.
Remarking on the two deaths, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen noted that "measles was largely eliminated... for more than three decades," which is why many residents "are not familiar with this disease and don’t fully understand the potential severity of the illness."
"We want to ensure every Pennsylvanian has the information they need to protect themselves, their loved ones and their communities," Bogen added. "As a physician, I want to make sure that people understand that the MMR vaccine is safe and provides the best protection we have against measles."
Measles has made a major resurgence in the US in 2026, and in July the total number of documented cases of the virus surpassed the number recorded throughout all over 2025.
News of the measles-related deaths—the first recorded in the country this year—prompted some critics to point the finger at US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine conspiracy theorist who was appointed by President Donald Trump to be America's top public health official.
Shaughnessy Naughton, president of 314 Action, declared that "measles is officially out of control," while demanding that Kennedy step down from leading HHS.
"How many more people need to die before there is a nationwide call for RFK Jr. to resign?" Naughton asked. "His anti-science, anti-vaccine policies are killing people and infecting a generation of Americans with dangerous vaccine skepticism that will take years to recover from... It’s time for RFK Jr. to step aside before he inflicts more harm."
Naughton's call for Kennedy's resignation was echoed by Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), whose own state is experiencing a measles outbreak.
"RFK Jr.'s lies and conspiracy theories are making Marylanders sick," Alsobrooks wrote in a Tuesday social media post. "RFK Jr. must resign or be fired. Vaccines are safe and effective. Listen to your pediatrician."
Tara C. Smith, professor of epidemiology at the Kent State University College of Public Health, pointed out that the US has already experienced more measles deaths during Kennedy's two years running HHS than it experienced throughout the prior 24 years combined.
"And outbreaks are still growing here in Ohio and in Pennsylvania," Smith added. "Utter madness that our government is encouraging this."
Biologist Lucky Tran, director of science communications and media relations at Columbia University, similarly observed that measles had been all but eliminated in the two decades before Kennedy took control of HHS.
"Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, but will lose that status this year," wrote Tran. "This is an abject failure of public health leadership."
Kennedy has long used his influence to sow distrust of vaccines, including in Lancaster County, the location of the two most recent measles-related fatalities.
As The New York Times reported earlier this month, Kennedy in 2021 delivered a speech to an estimated 1,500 people in the county urging them to resist any government vaccine mandates.
"Those agencies are going to do everything in their power to make the Amish vaccinate," Kennedy said. "Because they cannot stand the fact that you are healthy."
The future HHS secretary also dismissed concerns about the danger of measles during the speech, recommending a mixture of "chicken soup and vitamin A" as a "cure" for the disease.
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Corrupt ‘Cash-for-Clemency’ Trump Pardons Have Cost Crime Victims $1.7 Billion in Damages
“Wealthy white-collar criminals and drug traffickers hire Trump insiders, pour money into his political operation... and suddenly the doors of the White House swing open for a pardon.”
Aug 21, 2026
President Donald Trump's pardons for rich criminals have robbed their victims of $1.7 billion in compensation, according to a report out Friday from the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
The analysis, released by the committee’s ranking member, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), examines how Trump has turned the traditional pardon process into a “cash-for-clemency” system that has allowed influencers and fixers close to the president to make millions by selling access to his pardon power.
"Donald Trump has taken one of the most solemn constitutional powers of the presidency and turned it into a bustling marketplace for insider political influence and unjust personal enrichment," Raskin said in a statement on Friday.
"Wealthy white-collar criminals and drug traffickers hire Trump insiders, pour money into his political operation or cultivate his family’s financial interests, and suddenly the doors of the White House swing open for a pardon, commutation, and forgiveness of all fines and financial restitution owed," he continued.
Drawing on Reuters' reporting from June, the report examines how Trump has sidelined the traditional Department of Justice guidelines for offering pardons, which long involved career civil servants evaluating petitions for clemency based on the seriousness of the offense, the individual's rehabilitation, and restitution to victims.
In its place, Trump has consolidated control of the pardon power within the White House, where the determining factor has often been a person's connections to Trump's inner circle. This has allowed the clique of people with access to the president to act as gatekeepers and reap the rewards.
According to Reuters:
Reuters identified 290 advocates, or influencers, who publicly or privately helped secure clemency for 197 recipients. Because some of the advocates worked on behalf of multiple candidates, their efforts at times overlapped, representing 624 different acts of influence. Among the influencers, 73 helped secure more than one pardon or sentence commutation. Brett Tolman, a former US attorney now in private practice in Utah, has been involved in at least 12 pardons or commutations. Roger Stone, a veteran political consultant and longtime Trump confidant, had a hand in at least five.
Trump's use of the pardon system to reward friends and donors is widely reported. But Raskin's report sheds new light on the other side of the equation: the victims who were denied compensation after Trump waved away the sentences of those who scammed and stole from them.
Trevor Milton, an auto company executive who was convicted in 2022 of defrauding investors after pretending that one of his company's vehicles had autonomous capabilities, was potentially on the hook for nearly $700 million.
But after he and his wife donated a combined $1.8 million to committees supporting Trump and soon-to-be Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in 2024, Milton received a pardon from the president that wiped out his obligation to pay.
Afterward, Trump called Milton personally and told him to "call Bobby [Kennedy] and thank him" for the pardon, according to Reuters.
Paul Walczak, a healthcare executive who funded a lavish lifestyle by stealing millions in payroll taxes from his low-wage employees, got a pardon from Trump weeks after his mother, a top GOP fundraiser, attended a $1-million-a-plate event at Mar-a-Lago. As a result, he got out of paying back $4.5 million in stolen payroll taxes, which go to fund programs like Medicare and Social Security.
Jason Galanis, who was convicted of stealing millions from the Oglala Sioux Nation and defrauding pension funds for union workers in New York State, avoided paying over $84 million in restitution after Trump pardoned him in early 2025.
A longtime associate of former President Joe Biden's son Hunter, Galanis gained favor with Trump after he appeared as a star witness for Republicans during their impeachment effort over the Democratic president's alleged "influence peddling."
Other fraudsters relied directly on the network of pardon lobbyists, like nursing home owner Joseph Schwartz, who also stole payroll taxes from his employees and had separately lost several wrongful death lawsuits for neglecting elderly patients.
While in prison on a three-year sentence, Schwartz spent more than $1.1 million on lobbyists to advocate for his release. This included access to the powerful pro-Trump influencer Laura Loomer, White House “pardon czar” Alice Marie Johnson, and White House Counsel David Warrington.
The report said this got him out of paying $33 million he still owes in federal taxes, and the report also notes his apparent attempts to avoid paying out wrongful death judgments.
The report also details Trump's pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who'd been convicted of helping the Sinaloa Cartel import hundreds of tons of drugs into the United States.
He was convicted in 2024 after prosecutors spent more than 15 years building a case against him. But his role in helping rich, MAGA-allied tech moguls, including Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen, with a project called Próspera—a libertarian “charter city” for cryptocurrency investors—made his case a cause célèbre among Trump’s inner circle.
Roger Stone, who claimed that pardoning Hernández would "save the Próspera experiment," joined former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and others at Mar-a-Lago to push for the ex-Honduran leader's freedom, and within hours it was granted.
As the report details, "the Bureau of Prisons paid a tactical team overtime to drive Mr. Hernández from his maximum-security prison in West Virginia to the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, where he was treated to a luxury stay at taxpayer expense in one of New York’s finest hotels."
Some of the criminality pardoned by Trump verges on cartoonish. A former Las Vegas City Council member, Michele Fiore, nicknamed "Lady Trump," stole $70,000 from a memorial for police officers killed on duty and used it to pay for rent, cosmetic surgery, and her daughter's wedding. To this day, she refuses to pay the money back.
Adriana and Andres Camberos, meanwhile, escaped having to pay their victims over $50 million and forfeit an additional $30 million in illegal proceeds from an elaborate grocery store fraud scheme that allowed them to pay for luxury sports cars, beachfront properties, investments, and cryptocurrency.
Adriana, who'd previously been convicted for selling counterfeit 5-Hour Energy drinks filled with fake liquid, had already had her sentence commuted at the end of Trump's first term after her brother donated to his 2020 campaign and got the ear of two attorneys close to the president, defense attorney Adam Katz and White House Counsel Stefan Passantino. After she and her brother were convicted of grocery fraud, they went back to Katz and Passantino, who helped secure a pardon for both of them last year.
“In recent months, often to justify immigration crackdowns or cuts to healthcare and food assistance programs, House Republicans have, hilariously, made ‘fighting fraud’ one of their central talking points,” the report concluded. “But convicted fraudster Donald Trump and the MAGA pardon industrial complex are all about committing fraud, protecting fraudulent schemes, and pardoning convicted fraudsters.”
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Critics Slam Trump FDA Pick Heidi Overton as 'Anti-Reproductive Rights, Anti-Vax, Anti-Science'
"The American people deserve someone who will put science and facts FIRST, not another Trump sycophant who will make it their mission to attack medication abortion," said one Democratic senator.
Aug 19, 2026
President Donald Trump on Wednesday tapped White House health policy adviser Dr. Heidi Overton to lead the Food and Drug Administration, a move that drew fierce opposition from Democratic lawmakers, reproductive rights advocates, and public health experts, who pointed to her opposition to abortion rights and support for controversial changes to federal vaccine policy as cause for alarm.
Trump took to his Truth Social network to announce his pick of Overton, a physician and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, to replace former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who resigned in May following months of turmoil at the agency. The president described Overton as a "ROCKSTAR" in his administration who will "deliver on the MOST TRANSFORMATIVE Health Agenda in History."
"Heidi is 'ALWAYS RIGHT,' Secretary Kennedy recently said in the Oval Office!" Trump continued, referring to Health and Human Services chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "We need her leadership at the FDA now to ensure that the US remains the WORLD LEADER for Scientific Discovery and CURES."
The president also said Overton would work with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz to advance his agenda of faster drug approvals, increased innovation, clinical trial reforms, and lower prescription drug prices.
However, skeptics argue that Overton’s policy record raises serious questions about whether she would maintain the FDA’s scientific and regulatory independence in an administration in which critics say loyalty to Trump is of paramount importance.
Reproductive Freedom for All—formerly the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws and NARAL Pro-Choice America—noted that "Overton has an extensive anti-abortion record."
The group continued:
She celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade as a “huge victory,” and has advocated for the politicization of government agencies to help advance a nationwide anti-abortion agenda. She previously worked at America First Policy Institute, an extreme conservative think tank made up of former Trump administration officials, where she authored a brief pushing disinformation about the safety of medication abortion and calling for additional, medically unnecessary restrictions on access to mifepristone.
“Donald Trump is trying to put an anti-abortion extremist in charge of any agency that could seriously undermine reproductive healthcare—including the agency that could roll back access to mifepristone nationwide," Reproductive Freedom for All president and CEO Mini Timmaraju said. "Her nomination is another alarming step in Trump’s plan to weaponize every part of the federal government to restrict abortion nationwide.”
Overton's shifting stance on vaccines also raised eyebrows.
Endpoints News senior senior reporter Max Bayer highlighted how, while working at AFPI, Overton "and others praised Operation Warp Speed, the massive government initiative to expedite development and manufacturing of the Covid-19 vaccines" during Trump's first administration.
But less than a year later, Bayer said, Overton "advocated against Covid-19 school vaccine mandates, writing in an editorial the data supported more parental choice in the decision."
"Overton stood by Trump earlier in August as he announced a sweeping and contentious new executive order amending the childhood vaccine schedule and advising that the [measles, mumps, and rubella] vaccine be broken up into individual components," he added. "Makers of the vaccine pushed back on the directive, but now with Overton in line to lead the FDA, there could be enhanced pressure for drugmakers to follow through on the request."
Democratic US lawmakers also voiced opposition to Overton's nomination.
"Heidi Overton is a far-right, anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading the FDA," Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said on social media. "The American people deserve someone who will put science and facts FIRST, not another Trump sycophant who will make it their mission to attack medication abortion. I will vote NO."
At least one Republican lawmaker—who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee—also questioned Trump's pick.
"While I respect Dr. Overton’s experience as a physician, I have strong concerns about her nomination to be FDA commissioner," Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a gastroenterologist, said on X. "Her lack of managerial experience does not prepare her well for leading a large organization that is already dealing with staffing and morale issues."
"Additionally, Dr. Overton’s active role in last week’s nonsensical vaccine executive order calls into question her commitment to standing up for sound science and protecting children’s health. That alone is almost disqualifying," added Casisdy, who earlier this year lost a primary race to a Trump-backed challenger.
Overton's nomination comes amid turmoil at an agency that has seen thousands of employees fired by Kennedy since last year amid Trump administration efforts to shrink the government in line with Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led framework for a far-right federal overhaul.
Chris Meekins, a former Trump health official who is now an analyst at the investment bank Raymond James, told clients that Overton would be "like Makary, but probably worse."
“Being seemingly inexperienced and unqualified is fine if you have self-awareness and humility and a strong team around you,” Meekins wrote. “Based off of our DC channel checks, she does not seem to have either."
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Federal Judge Blocks Trump and RFK Effort to Get More Teens Pregnant
The ruling, said the government watchdog Public Citizen, is "a win for young Americans' well-being."
Aug 19, 2026
The Teen Pregnancy Prevention program, first authorized through bipartisan legislation in 2009, has been credited with helping to dramatically reduce the number of American teenagers who have experienced unwanted pregnancies in the past decade and a half, dropping by more than 65% over 16 years, according to one congressional report.
Despite the best efforts of President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a federal judge's ruling on Wednesday sent the message that the push to reduce teen pregnancy in the US will continue, with the administration's limits on the program's federal grants paused.
Judge Christopher Cooper of the US District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction in the case of Hennepin County, Minnesota v. US Department of Health and Human Services, in which officials joined King County in Washingtin state, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) in challenging HHS's changes to the program's grant policy. The plaintiffs were represented by Public Citizen and Democracy Forward.
The changes, said Cooper, were “likely arbitrary and capricious.”
The new policy, announced in June, canceled 53 of 66 active grants that had gone to public universities, health departments, and nonprofits for programming related to sex education, including information that was given to teens on contraception and communication with sexual partners.
In Trump's 2027 budget, the grants are described as promoting "radical leftist ideology," and officials claim there is no evidence that teen pregnancy prevention programs that go beyond educating young people about abstinence have "contributed to the historic decline in teen pregnancy, which is now at an all-time low."
Under new guidance issued in June, Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) program grantees are required to focus lessons on abstinence, deemphasize contraception, and teach teens about fertility and "body literacy."
“HHS is perfectly entitled to formulate its own views about how to stem teen pregnancy—or even whether it is worth preventing at all—and to pursue policy initiatives consistent with its viewpoint. But it is not at liberty, under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), to impose conditions on grant recipients that Congress did not intend or that are unreasonable or unexplained. The preliminary record suggests that HHS has done just that,” wrote Cooper in the ruling.
"Through the TPP, Congress sought to fund a range of evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention strategies, not just abstinence. According to unrebutted record evidence, programs that teach abstinence to the exclusion of all other approaches are ineffective in delaying sexual initiation and reducing adolescent pregnancy, at least as a general matter," Cooper continued.
The judge took aim at the administration's promotion of "body literacy," which he called “a nebulous concept that appears to elevate fertility and marital procreation over well-tested forms of contraception and pregnancy prevention.”
Cooper also suggested that HHS had not bothered to find genuine evidence of its claims about "body literacy," instead "remarkably" referencing "public health studies that appear either not to exist or not to support the propositions for which they are cited—a hallmark of AI-generated citations.”
The judge stopped short of reinstating the dozens of grants, amounting to about $67 million, that have been terminated, saying it was unclear whether he had the authority to do so.
The plaintiffs and other advocates of comprehensive sex education have called for a permanent injunction; Cooper called on both parties in the case to propose a schedule for next steps by September 1.
Callie Simon, executive director of SIECUS, said the group was "encouraged that the court has halted implementation of the new harmful policy" but emphasized that "the impacts of terminating existing grants remain."
“Today’s decision sends a clear message that the Trump-Vance administration cannot replace the proven, bipartisan Teen Pregnancy Prevention program with an ideologically driven alternative that harms young people,” said Simon. "Communities across the country are still without the evidence-based programs they relied on, and we will continue fighting to ensure young people have access to the sex education they deserve.”
Sandra J. Valenciano, director and health officer for public health in Seattle and King counties, said local communities were facing a measurable loss due to HHS' stripping of TPP grants
“This federal action threatened our ability to complete a study on a new science-based, community-informed sex education curriculum specifically for young men and boys,” said Valenciano. “This ruling gives us hope that we may still be able to get to the finish line with this study and ultimately empower more young people to build healthy families if, when, and how they choose.”
Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, said the ruling "reaffirms the value of trusted, evidence-based education programs that help youth make informed choices and plan for their futures."
"Attacks on the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program not only put young people at risk, they also risk increasing costs for taxpayers," said Richardson. "No one benefits from these politically motivated attacks. It’s time for them to end.”
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Kindergarten Vaccine Exemptions Hit Record High as US Suffers Worst Measles Outbreak in Decades
"The United States is experiencing a 35-year high for measles cases as federal officials continue to elevate misleading and disproven information about vaccines," said one medical expert.
Aug 18, 2026
Data released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday showed that the rate of kindergartners with vaccine exemptions hit a record high over the last year as the nation's top health official continued to spread falsehoods about vaccine safety.
In all, CDC reported that 155,000 students, or 4.2% of all kindergartners enrolled in public schools, received vaccination exemptions in the 2025-2026 school year, an increase from the 3.6% of publicly enrolled kindergartners who received such exemptions in the prior school year.
The Washington Post noted in a Monday report on the data that "the biggest factor in the increasing exemption rate came from families seeking nonmedical exemptions," and that exemption rates now exceed 5% in nearly half of all US states.
The jump in vaccine exemptions comes as the US is dealing with the largest outbreak of measles it's experienced in over three decades.
Numbers released by the CDC last month revealed that there have been 2,318 recorded cases of measles this year, the highest number of cases recorded since the virus was declared eliminated in the country more than two decades ago.
Experts have said that this surge in measles cases is largely due to lower uptake of the measles vaccine.
Dr. James Campbell, member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Infectious Diseases, told CBS News in an interview published Monday that the primary reason for the drop in vaccinations was the "chaos and confusion in vaccination recommendation systems in the last year or so," since the start of the second Trump administration.
Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the Post that it doesn't take a very large decrease in the vaccination rate to give the measles virus an opening.
"For some diseases like measles, even a small decrease in vaccination rates can lead to more outbreaks of disease," Racine explained, "because community immunity requires over 95% of susceptible individuals to be immunized."
"This risk is real," Raccine added. "The United States is experiencing a 35-year high for measles cases as federal officials continue to elevate misleading and disproven information about vaccines, inserting unnecessary fear and confusion into families’ decision making. And we are seeing the results."
The results could get even worse if President Donald Trump's executive order calling for the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination be divided into three separate shots gets implemented.
Experts have warned that separating the vaccines means that families will be less likely to have their children get all three shots, and the CDC's own website notes that "no published scientific evidence shows any benefit in separating the combination MMR vaccine into three individual shots."
Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care, said surging exemptions were a direct result of misinformation about vaccines being pushed by both Trump and US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"Connect the dots," said Woodhouse. "Donald Trump and RFK Jr. frequently spew anti-vax lies to a national audience, parents get needlessly freaked out, exemptions surge, vaccination rates plummet, outbreaks of preventable diseases shatter records, kids die. Trump’s allergy to science and reality is its own deadly virus."
Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as US surgeon general during Trump's first term, also criticized Kennedy's leadership in a Tuesday social media post.
"You can’t be the leader of all health policy in America, AND claim you’re for childhood vaccinations, AND ignore this trend/not have a clear plan to increase vaccine uptake," Adams wrote, "at least not if you’re serious about improving America’s health."
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Trump Order Rooted in Debunked Vaccine-Autism Link 'Will Get Kids Killed,' Warns Critic
Protect Our Care called the president's decree on the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine "a wildly dangerous escalation of the administration’s deadly anti-vax agenda."
Aug 10, 2026
US President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order overhauling federal childhood vaccine recommendations, reviving a discredited theory that vaccines may contribute to autism and prompting condemnation from public health advocates and even rebuke from a Republican senator.
Trump's order, “Delivering Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations for Americans,” calls for separating the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination into three individual shots "once such products are domestically available." The directive also recommends administering childhood immunizations during separate medical visits, "to the maximum extent feasible."
At a press conference, Trump explained that the recommendations in his order concern "many subjects, but including autism in particular."
"Decades ago, children received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today," the president said. "In those times, people were much healthier and, of course, the high rates of autism now observed did not exist. So, there's a reason for such epidemic rates of autism. And we're going to bring it back to much closer to where it was."
"While we do not know exactly what the cause is with respect to autism, it is essential to our research efforts that we have the very best vaccine recommendations in the entire world," he added. "So we're reducing them, we're changing it to visits over the period of a year, a year and a half, so they get 20% of what they would have gotten in one big shot."
Decades of rigorous research have failed to produce any credible scientific link between vaccines and autism. That has not stopped influential figures, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from claiming such a link. Trump and Kennedy also alarmed experts by claiming last year that acetaminophen, commonly known by the brand name Tylenol, is linked to autism spectrum disorders in developing fetuses when taken during pregnancy.
While anti-vaccine and vaccine skeptic voices applauded Trump’s order, public health experts said the directive will prove deadly.
Trump also claimed that inoculating children with all three components of the MMR vaccine could possibly be "quite lethal," but when asked by a reporter for evidence supporting that claim, the president could offer none.
I put together these two parts of Trump’s event on vaccines.
Trump claims there is a possibility that the MMR vaccine could be “quite lethal.” But later, when asked if he has any evidence to back up his claims, he says no pic.twitter.com/AwuW9IiYNl
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 10, 2026
The Affordable Care Act advocacy group Protect Our Care warned that Trump's executive order on the "nonexistent autism-vaccine link will get kids killed" and "is a wildly dangerous escalation of the administration’s deadly anti-vax agenda."
“Pushing parents to spread out these lifesaving vaccines over time is guaranteed to increase kids’ exposure to these very harmful diseases, including the simple reality that follow-up appointments will be missed," Protect Our Care senior adviserc Anne Shoup said in a statement. "If Trump’s baseless, science-free decree is followed, the end result will not be fewer children with autism, but far more in the ER or even the morgue."
"Whether or not state health departments follow Trump’s ignorant guidance, this official proclamation from the highest level of power will have a further chilling effect on vaccination rates across the board," Shoup added. "All Trump is doing is fanning more unfounded fear, pressuring a further drop in vaccination rates, and welcoming a resurgence of preventable diseases once thought eradicated. For the anti-vaxxer-in-chief, the current record-breaking measles crisis is apparently not on a grand enough scale.”
Anthony Wright, executive director at the health advocacy group Families USA, said in a statement that “today, the president announced yet another change in vaccine policy that is not based on science or medical evidence."
"The science has not changed. Vaccines that prevent common illnesses like rotavirus, hepatitis B, and the flu are just as safe and effective today as they were yesterday," he continued. "The new policy will simply create chaos and confusion for patients and providers, and increase costs for families when getting their kids vaccinated."
"This executive order seeks to sidestep the established panel of experts entirely, replacing decades of bipartisan, public, evidence-based review with the whims of a rogue White House and HHS secretary," Wright said. "This new directive sabotages a science-based process that has successfully prevented widespread outbreaks among American children for generations."
“Downgrading the universal recommendation for common, lifesaving vaccines will cause confusion for parents and providers alike, and confusion costs lives," he added. "Removing the presumption that every child should receive them isn't just dangerous; it risks undermining the guarantee that recommended vaccines are covered without cost-sharing, forcing families to choose between protecting their kids and paying for an expensive doctor's visit."
Dr. Robert Steinbrook, health research group director at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said that "the Trump administration is continuing a mindless anti-scientific assault on the childhood vaccine schedule and falsely tying vaccines to autism."
"There is no medical reason for the MMR vaccine to be split into three separate single-disease shots that would be administered at separate office visits, changes that would only decrease vaccine coverage and increase healthcare costs," he continued. "Under the draft executive order, mandatory vaccine requirements for children to attend school would be also put at further risk. These and other directives are the exact opposite of ‘Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations’ during the worst year for measles cases in decades."
The resurgence in measles is directly linked to vaccine refusal and hesitancy stoked by influential figures and fora like Kennedy and the Children's Health Defense nonprofit group he formerly chaired.
Trump will sign an executive order proposing reducing childhood vaccines, and separating the MMR vaccine into 3 individual shots.This reckless move will decrease vaccine uptake further at a time where measles cases are at a 35-year high, and the US is set to lose its measles elimination status.
— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran.com) August 10, 2026 at 12:24 PM
“Senate confirmation of Dr. Erica Schwartz as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) should have restored sanity to the federal government’s vaccine policies," Steinbrook added. "Regrettably, within days of Schwartz’s confirmation, the Trump administration has offered only more irrational nonsense.”
Trump and Kennedy have pursued a broad rollback of federal vaccine policy, including by purging the CDC's entire vaccine advisory committee and replacing its members with controversial figures; reducing or eliminating universal recommendations for several vaccines, including Covid-19, flu, hepatitis B, and some childhood vaccines; canceling hundreds of millions of dollars in mRNA-vaccine development funding; and pushing individual decision-making.
Physicians serving in Congress from both parties also decried Trump's order.
“Donald Trump and RFK Jr. have gambled with American lives and seem determined to turn the clock back on decades of medical and scientific progress," said Congresswoman Kelly Morrison (D-Minn.), an OB-GYN. "Communities across the country continue to face outbreaks of preventable diseases, and Trump and RFK Jr. are doubling down on their dangerous disinformation."
"Meanwhile, working families continue to see their healthcare and prescription drug costs skyrocket—all so Trump can pay for tax handouts for billionaires," she added, referring to the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill signed by the president in July 2025. "Families shouldn’t have to worry that Trump and RFK Jr. will stand in the way of protecting themselves and their loved ones from serious illnesses.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a gastroenterologist who voted to confirm Kennedy, wrote on X: "I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong. The president does not have the expertise to make these changes."
"Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism," he continued. "Breaking up vaccines will mean children have to get more shots to get the same protection, not fewer shots. It will increase hesitancy and make children less safe."
"Parents should listen to their child’s pediatrician about vaccines rather than listening to an inaccurate executive order," Cassidy added. "This is so wrong."
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