Anti-Vax, Anti-Abortion Operative Should Not Be Running the Nation’s Top Health Agency
Donald Trump today announced he plans to nominate Dr. Heidi Overton, a White House domestic policy aide with no agency management experience, to run the Food and Drug Administration. In response, 314 Action President Shaughnessy Naughton released the following statement:
“Heidi Overton is a political operative chosen for her ability to appease the alchemist-in-chief,” said Shaughnessy Naughton, 314 Action President. “Widely considered as her predecessor’s protege, if she is confirmed to lead the FDA—we will get more of the same chaos and confusion. Overton is a known anti-vaxxer and anti-abortion activist. She has cheered on the end of abortion rights and was standing right next to Trump last week as he signed away the lives of more children who will inevitably get sick or die from preventable diseases.”
“If nominated, Overton would take the helm of an agency that has already lost more than 3,000 staff over the past year amid growing concerns that the FDA has become too political. As trust in public health agencies declines under RFK Jr. and outbreaks spread nationwide, 314 Action urges the Senate to reject her nomination and demand a commissioner who is qualified for the job.”
Dr. Heidi Overton’s record:
- Overton currently serves as deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Before joining the administration, she was chief policy officer at the America First Policy Institute, where she called for the NIH, CDC, and FDA to be “reformed” for not producing research that confirmed a conservative worldview.
- Overton has stayed silent while the FDA’s independence has come under sustained political pressure. RFK Jr. has pushed the agency to loosen the reins on unvetted peptide injections sold online with sweeping, unproven health claims, and Trump has personally lobbied FDA officials to expand the market for flavored e-cigarettes.
- Overton built a record as one of the administration’s most vocal anti-abortion voices. She celebrated the overturn of Roe v. Wade as a “huge victory for life,” and in a 2024 op-ed attacked then-Vice President Harris for refusing to “condemn late-term abortion,” a position Overton claimed was more extreme than that of “most of liberal Europe.”
- She has also stood alongside Trump as he signed an executive order gutting the childhood vaccine schedule, and pledged to work with states to roll back school vaccine requirements. Even a former Trump health official warned this week that Overton has “bought further into anti-science and anti-vaccine messaging.”