Despite the people speaking and saying they think reproductive care access is Good, Actually, America’s Republican leadership is (again, still, some more) trying to say our opinions don’t count!
Twenty-six years ago this week, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of mifepristone, and people have been using it without issue ever since. As of 2023, in fact, medication abortion accounted for a majority of all abortions, per the Guttmacher Institute. It’s safe, effective, and discreet.
So of course there’s an effort underway to take that shit away from us!
That brings me to Heidi Overton, who the Trump administration is trying to say should be the next head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Last week, Serena Joy here refused to say whether she thinks birth control and abortion are the same thing, which is an exciting development if you’re an American woman who has lived past a certain age and seen all this bullshit before.
“I can’t prejudge the determination of the safety review that’s currently ongoing,” Overton, an abortion opponent who serves as a White House domestic policy adviser on health care, said.
If confirmed, Overton would lead the Food and Drug Administration as it undertakes a controversial study of mifepristone’s safety that abortion opponents have long demanded.
She did apparently finally admit mifeprestone is safe as labeled, which it is, but it was a weak affirmation compared to her previous statements, and she wouldn’t say whether she would push back against the Trump administration if they went over her head.
She has been deeply loyal to Mr. Trump and Susie Wiles, his chief of staff, according to people familiar with the dynamics who were not authorized to speak publicly.
When asked about the abortion pill mifepristone, which she has previously called “dangerous to women,” Dr. Overton said that “the drug is safe and effective as labeled today” under F.D.A. regulations.
Hey, I have this great idea! If you’re worried about whether mifepristone is bad for you, don’t take it. And if you’re against abortion, don’t have one! Leave the rest of us the fuck alone and let us take it up with God (or whomever) on our own time. I certainly don’t want some Pekingese-faced little handmaiden deciding my own bodily decisions for me and neither does anybody else! Get the fuck out of here and mind your own business!
PREVIOUSLY!
After a full generation of complaining about “nanny states” whenever someone said it might be cool to stop spending money on weapons and start spending it on hungry American kids for a change, we got this instead — from the exact people who were throwing that line around to begin with.
I have another great idea. Hear me out. Let’s throw anyone trying to control anybody else’s bodily autonomy, no matter what they pretend to represent, straight out of fucking power, because when they start trying to control any of us they are showing us that they are incapable of representing all of us fairly. Going after women? OUT! Incarcerating asylum-seekers? OUT! Fucking with our trans kids? OUT!!
And then let’s never listen to their horseshit ever again!
Dr. Overton? FIRE THE FUCKING WRITERS. FIRE THEM NOW.
Saw Mifepristone, expected Robyn, got Brooke.
Can't go wrong, either way.