Trump's anti-vax FDA nominee Heidi Overton faces Senate grilling over abortion pill and childhood vaccines

From the Newshound archive · first published 24 September 2026 · last updated 25 September 2026.

Dr. Heidi Overton, Trump's pick to head the Food and Drug Administration, faced the Senate health committee Thursday over her positions on vaccine policy and the abortion pill. Sen. Bill Cassidy — a physician and the committee's Republican chairman — called her support for splitting combination vaccines "almost disqualifying." Overton was in the Oval Office last month with Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. when the two men suggested a possible link between combination vaccines and autism.

If confirmed, Overton would inherit an ongoing safety review of the primary abortion drug, a push to separate combination vaccines, and new rules recently put in place easing restrictions on flavoured e-cigarette sales.