Mar 11, 2025 - Health
FDA counsel pick may anger anti-abortion advocates
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A Justice Department attorney who defended the availability of abortion pills in a high-profile case during the Biden administration will be the Food and Drug Administration's top lawyer, a choice made by commissioner-designate Marty Makary.
Why it matters: The future of access to medication abortion — specifically mifepristone — is a hot-button issue facing the Trump administration and was a key line of questioning at Makary's Senate confirmation hearing last week.
- The decision to select Hilary Perkins as FDA chief counsel has been deeply controversial within the administration. Health and Human Services officials didn't like the choice but were overriden by the White House, sources said.
- Perkins' appointment is according to four sources familiar, including an HHS official and someone close to Makary's preparation and transition who is in communication with HHS officials. HHS published a press release confirming her appointment after this story first published.
- Perkins previously was at Jones Day and clerked at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to her LinkedIn profile. At DOJ, she was assistant director at the Consumer Protection Branch.
- "We've been able to recruit higher quality personnel to HHS than in any time in its history," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. "These are individuals who will return the agency to gold-standard science, evidence-based medicine, and recalibrate its trajectory toward public health rather than industry profiteering."
The Senate health committee is due to vote on advancing Makary's nomination on Thursday.
- Democrats pressed Makary during his hearing on whether he'd accept many mainstream scientists and health groups' conclusion that mifepristone is safe and current FDA policies are appropriate.
- But many Republicans also care deeply about the issue — from the opposite perspective. It's not hard to see some members having questions about the selection of Perkins, even though she argued the case under the Biden administration as a career DOJ employee.
