Top red flags

Top red flags

• Spouted disinformation on Fox News about fetal pain during procedural abortion.
• Despite decades of research proving that the mifepristone is extraordinarily safe and effective, he refused to confirm he would protect access to medication abortion during his Senate nomination hearing, claiming he needed to have a “solid, hard look at the data.”
• Praised by Focus on the Family and Catholic Vote, noting that his nomination opens the possibility of revoking medication abortion approval.

Statements

Statements

Used false and inflammatory rhetoric about abortion in an interview on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Dr. Makary stated: “Somewhere between 15 and 20 weeks, babies will actually resist the instruments of abortion. Now, Roe is based on viability, but viability has been changing. Babies survive now at approximately the halfway point of pregnancies. At 20 or 21 weeks, babies have survived outside of the womb. So ironically we sometimes do fetal surgery on a baby inside the womb of a mother to save the baby’s life but at the same age, in other settings, surgical instruments are used to abort a baby. So there is a great irony. And now you can barely talk about it. I witnessed it as a medical student, I’ll tell you it doesn’t matter which side you protest on around this issue. If you see the actual images of what’s happening and a baby resisting an abortion, it’ll weigh on your conscience. But today you can barely talk about it. Nurses can get fired if they don’t participate. Students are ridiculed. Most of the professional medical associations have taken a political stand now supporting abortion right up until the third trimester.” 

Extremist connections

Extremist connections

• Associated with Paragon Health Institute, a conservative thinktank that advocates for decreased federal health care spending and altering Medicaid eligibility by including work requirements.
• Nomination was celebrated by well-known anti-abortion organizations including Catholic Vote and Focus on the Family, the former noting that “the appointment of a pro-life doctor to head the FDA comes as pro-lifers continue efforts to reverse the FDA’s approval of the mail-in abortion pill mifepristone.”