Marty Makary had barely settled into his office at the Food and Drug Administration before pro-life groups started keeping a running tally of what he hadn’t done.
He hadn’t reversed the Biden rules letting women order mifepristone online and have it mailed to their door. He hadn’t pulled the drug from the market. And last year, on his watch, the FDA actually approved a generic version of the abortion pill, making it cheaper and more widely available.
On Tuesday, Makary handed in his resignation.
The White House framed it as a process dispute. “No bad blood,” a White House official told Fox News Digital. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pushed for the exit. Kyle Diamantis, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for Food, takes over as acting commissioner effective immediately.
But the behind-the-scenes picture is messier than that.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Trump had already signed off on a plan to fire Makary, citing three sources who pointed specifically to his handling of abortion drug policy and MAHA priorities. When asked about it, Trump was characteristically evasive. “I’ve been reading about it, but I know nothing about it,” he said.
Less than 96 hours later, Makary was gone.
The timing looks like anything but a coincidence. Makary was scheduled to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, putting him one day away from a high-profile public hearing when the White House decided to end his tenure.
The core complaint from the pro-life community is straightforward. When Trump won in 2024, groups like Live Action and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America believed they had finally secured a president who would crack down on mifepristone. The Biden administration had dismantled most of the safety guardrails around the drug. Prescriptions by telemedicine. Delivery by mail. No in-person follow-up required. Conservatives called it a mail-order abortion scheme and expected Trump’s FDA to shut it down.
Makary didn’t.
A Trump administration official who spoke to Fox News was less measured. “What a mess Makary turned out to be,” the official said, claiming the commissioner had told “every pro-life advocate their concerns are an afterthought.” Another line: “The arrogance is stunning.”
That kind of language, from inside the administration, signals this was not just pressure from the outside. Makary had lost his allies internally.
