Lisa Jarvis, Columnist

We Should Worry About FDA Nominee's Approach to Abortion

Marty Makary’s testimony raised serious questions about whether he’ll follow the science or the politics.

March 7, 2025 at 12:30 PM UTC

Lisa Jarvis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering biotech, health care and the pharmaceutical industry. Previously, she was executive editor of Chemical & Engineering News.

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Anyone listening to Thursday's confirmation hearing for Marty Makary, President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration, should have heard alarms go off during discussion of a topic affecting access to health care for millions of Americans: his approach to regulation of the abortion pill mifepristone.

Makary mostly sidestepped direct answers to senators’ questions. But he sounded prepared to relitigate more than two decades of safety data on the drug, which is part of a two-pill regimen of medication abortion that has been approved since 2000.