On Tuesday, the news finally came: Marty Makary is out as FDA commissioner, and not a moment too soon.
Makary failed as FDA commissioner because he bestowed zero concern for the most pressing issue before him: the unrestricted proliferation of abortion pills. This is causing unborn babies to be killed en masse, in greater numbers than ever before in American history. (RELATED: Why Is RFK Jr.’s FDA Allowing Abortionists to Flood Red States With Pills?)
“I don’t think about the abortion pill.”
Last year, Makary damningly told the Wall Street Journal, “I don’t think about the abortion pill.” He added that he doesn’t think about the safety restrictions surrounding the pill, either. (RELATED: The Spectacle Ep. 418: Louisiana v. FDA: Battle to End Abortions Via Mail)
This is for a drug that has an 11 percent serious adverse event rate for women — including sepsis, infection, and hemorrhaging — according to a study from the Ethics and Public Policy Center released last year.
Makary promised a study reviewing the drug’s dangers while at the same time slow-walking the study to the maximum extent possible. This went so far that Makary insisted on waiting to do the study until a new drug safety data system, Sentinel 3.0, became available, but the system isn’t supposed to be out until late 2026 or early 2027. This amounted to punting the issue of the abortion pill to the next White House administration — enabling the maximum amount of babies to be killed and women to be endangered in the meantime. In addition, last fall, Makary approved a new generic version of mifepristone, flooding the market even more with the drug.
Sen. Josh Hawley saw right through Makary and his plot to allow abortion pills to flow unimpeded during his tenure.
After a briefing this February with Makary on the abortion pill study, Hawley concluded, “I just think that the FDA is not serious about it. I don’t think that they’re proceeding with any sense of urgency whatsoever.” The briefing led Hawley to conclude that the safety study is a “dead end.” (RELATED: Hawley Pushes Bill to Ban ‘Inherently Dangerous’ Abortion Pill Nationwide)
On top of the extreme dangers and death offered by the abortion pill, Makary chose to continue the Biden administration’s policy of insanely lax restrictions on its prescription. Under the current system, essentially anyone — 8 weeks pregnant or 25 weeks pregnant, man or woman — can have abortion pills shipped to their home by checking the right boxes on an online form.
This has created the situation where activist abortionists in liberal states are flooding red states where abortion is illegal with abortion pills. In effect, this has nullified pro-life states’ laws against abortion. (RELATED: Want to Crack Down on Drug Trafficking? Target the Abortion Drug Cartel)
Women who are further along in pregnancy than when the drug was intended for are ordering the pill online and are facing the dangerous medical effects that can result when the baby is too big to expel from a woman’s body. Under the previous prescription regimen, women needed to visit a clinic in person so that a doctor could determine how far along they were in their pregnancy.
In addition, we have seen numerous cases in which men have obtained abortion pills and used them to poison their girlfriends’ food. Take, for example, the case of a Texas man, Justin Anthony Banta, who has been charged with slipping abortion pills into his girlfriend’s cookies and beverage, resulting in the death of their child. With no in-person visit requirement, anyone can obtain the drugs. (RELATED: Another Man Accused of Forcing Abortion Pills on Mother of His Child)
As Sierra McClain wrote in the Wall Street Journal last month, “By making abortion drugs available without a face-to-face consultation, the FDA handed a potent tool to those who wish to override a woman’s will.” She noted data from the Charlotte Lozier Institute showing that 25 percent of surveyed women who had abortions said the abortion was unwanted or forced.
With the way Marty Makary has operated as FDA commissioner, no reasonable person can conclude that the Trump administration has advanced a pro-life agenda. A situation in which the number of abortions is increasing is demonstrably not one in which any strides have been made.
Rightly so, then, major pro-life leaders have made clear that the Trump administration is not living up to its promises and justly demanded the removal of Makary.
“FDA Commissioner Makary should be fired immediately,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, on May 4. “Indifference is completely unacceptable to millions of pro-life voters expecting the administration to act to save lives.”
She spoke in the strongest terms possible, saying, “This is a five-alarm crisis for the pro-life movement and for the GOP. The ‘states-only’ strategy, promoted out of fear after Dobbs, is an abject failure in the face of blue states brazenly violating state sovereignty and nullifying hard-won pro-life gains.”
“Trump is the problem. The president is the problem,” Dannenfelser additionally said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
Live Action President Lila Rose told Fox News, “President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy must end this now, remove Commissioner Makary, stop the mail order abortion scheme, and pull these child-killing drugs from the market.”
After Makary was fired, Hawley called it “an opportunity for the FDA to reset and protect life.”
But the man who has been picked to serve as acting commissioner, Kyle Diamantis, formally served as legal counsel for Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando.
The White House told Fox News that Diamantas ultimately left that case because of his pro-life beliefs.
“Kyle Diamantas was a junior legal associate who was assigned to that case by his superiors. He expressed his objections to representing Planned Parenthood based on his personal convictions, and ultimately removed himself from the case,” a spokesperson said.
However, Lila Rose said, “We cannot allow someone who represented Planned Parenthood to oversee rules surrounding the deadly abortion pill mifepristone that has killed MILLIONS of babies. @realDonaldTrump, we need a strong pro-life nominee to replace him IMMEDIATELY.”
At least some in the White House appear to understand the abject disaster Makary was.
“What a mess Makary turned out to be,” a Trump administration official told Fox News in May. The commissioner’s comments and actions, this official said, have told “every pro-life advocate their concerns are an afterthought.”
The next FDA commissioner better act quite differently than Marty Makary.
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