Fifty pro-life leaders released a letter on Thursday calling on U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner nominee Dr. Heidi Overton to revoke the Biden administration mail-order abortion scheme.
The leaders released the letter ahead of Overton’s confirmation hearing before the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee, urging her to end the unchecked flow of abortion pills across the United States caused by the Biden FDA’s deregulation of the abortion drug mifepristone.
“Those who advocate for women and the unborn have patiently awaited the end of the Biden-era abortion by mail scheme, which was designed to undermine the Dobbs decision. It is time for the Trump FDA to take action,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said in a statement.
The pro-abortion Biden administration temporarily suspended the in-person dispensation requirement for mifepristone in 2021 and made the change permanent in 2023 as an act of defiance after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The FDA’s mail-order scheme has enabled abortionists in blue states to mail abortion drugs into states with pro-life laws, and blue states have passed “shield laws” protecting abortionists from adverse legal action in red states for doing so. More and more stories continue to emerge of abusive men fraudulently obtaining abortion pills online with ease and coercing women into taking them.
“We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, call on FDA Commissioner nominee Dr. Heidi Overton to commit to restoring the safeguards governing mifepristone that existed before the Biden administration while the FDA completes its ongoing review of the drug,” the leaders wrote.
“Dr. Overton’s confirmation hearing provides an important opportunity for her to make clear what she plans to do about the FDA’s extremely permissive policy governing mifepristone,” they continued.
The leaders first pointed to a report from April 2025 suggesting that 11 percent of women experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days following a chemical abortion — which is significantly higher than the less than 0.5 percent in clinical trials reported on the FDA-approved drug label.
“Second, the permissiveness of the current policy is increasing the risk of abuse, especially by men who seek to force women to have abortions without their consent or knowledge,” they wrote. “By allowing mifepristone to be obtained without an in-person medical visit, the current FDA policy makes it more difficult to screen vulnerable women outside the presence of potential abusers.”
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The letter continues:
Third, mail-order abortion is undermining state laws enacted to protect unborn life and women. Despite the enactment of new pro-life laws in approximately 20 states since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion numbers nationwide are still increasing. The Biden administration removed the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone and allowed pharmacies to dispense the drug. Abortion drugs are now being mailed from pro-abortion states into pro-life states, as well as being sent to the United States from overseas.
Leaders also cited research from Charlotte Lozier Institute indicating shield laws are allowing the facilitation of approximately 14,770 abortions in states with pro-life laws each month, “meaning that around 177,240 lives could be saved annually in pro-life states if their laws were respected.”
“State governments attempting to protect life are being undermined by abortion drugs mailed in from outside their borders,” they wrote. “The FDA is central to this system because it is the federal agency responsible for the approval and protocol governing mifepristone, the most common drug used to kill children in the womb and the only drug designed with abortion as its primary purpose.”
“We are told that the FDA is conducting an ongoing study of mifepristone. However, that study has supposedly been ongoing for nearly two years,” they wrote.
The writers went on to clarify their immediate request: “The question is straightforward: Will Dr. Overton at least agree to revert to the policy in place before the Biden administration, a policy that provided at least some minimal safeguards and medical oversight for women until that elusive review is complete?”
They noted, “All of this is happening on President Trump’s watch, despite major advances in recent years in the pro-life movement, not the least of which was the overturning of Roe v. Wade.”
The letter continued, “The Trump FDA continues to abide by a Biden-era regimen allowing mifepristone to be dispensed through the mail without a physical exam, proper testing, or the guarantee of being able to screen vulnerable women outside the presence of potential abusers.”
The missive concluded:
We therefore call on Dr. Heidi Overton and the Trump administration to restore meaningful safeguards for mifepristone immediately while the FDA completes its review, and to end policies that have enabled abortion drugs to be distributed through the mail without adequate medical oversight.
We urge Dr. Overton and the Trump administration to be the defenders that American families need.
Among the leaders who signed the letter are Perkins, Live Action president and founder Lila Rose, president of Advancing American Freedom Tim Chapman, president of Students for Life of America Kristan Hawkins, and president of Center for Christian Virtue Aaron Baer, as well as the heads of several state-level pro-life and conservative organizations and prominent faith leaders.
Overton currently serves as a domestic policy official in the Trump White House and is a preventive medicine physician. Before her White House role, she was a chief policy officer at America First Policy Institute. During her time at the conservative organization, she praised the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and called for the FDA to reinstate its in-person requirement for mifepristone.
If she is confirmed, she will fill the role left vacant by the previous commissioner, Marty Makary, who resigned in May.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
