FDA: Makary resigns while concerns develop over new acting commissioner

UPDATE, 5/13/26: Acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas told Live Action founder and president Lila Rose by phone on May 13, 2026, that he is pro-life and regrets his past entanglement with Planned Parenthood. Read the details here.

5/12/26: U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Marty Makary resigned on Tuesday, 13 months after he took the position in the Trump administration. Stepping in as acting commissioner is Kyle Diamantas, according to reports.

Key Takeaways:

• Marty Makary has resigned from his post as the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

• During his time, he received criticism, especially from pro-life politicians and advocacy groups over his failure to produce a promised review of the abortion drug mifepristone.

• Kyle Diamantas, Deputy Commissioner for Food, will take over as acting commissioner until a permanent replacement is appointed.

• Diamantas worked for Baker Donelson and served as outside counsel for Planned Parenthood in Florida litigation involving whether it must stop committing abortions based on property regulations. Planned Parenthood won the case and was allowed to commit abortions.

The Details:

According to Politico, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Kr, was the one to make the call to push for Makary's resignation, which comes just days after President Trump said his administration was considering firing Makary following months of issues.

Issues leading to Makary's resignation

One major issue with Makary's work was that he had promised during his confirmation process to carry out a review on the safety of the abortion pill mifepristone. That review has yet to come to fruition; in the meantime, the FDA approved a generic version of the controversial, life-ending drug. In addition, Makary asked officials to delay the release of the mifepristone review until after midterm elections.

Following a Bloomberg Law report on the postponement of the review results, SBA Pro-Life America called for Makary to be fired.

Others joined the call. “Dr. Makary has failed to safeguard public health and safety. He has time to sign off on things like vaping and no awareness of chemical abortion pills that kill preborn babies in the hundreds and thousands,” Kristi Hamrick, the head of policy for the anti-abortion group Students for Life of America, wrote in a text message to The 19th.

Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins noted, "One sacrificial firing at the FDA does not mean victory for the pro-life movement. A win is the enforcement of the federal Comstock Act, which would end the shipping of abortion pills, and the banning of these pills from the marketplace.”

New acting commissioner

As a permanent replacement for Makary is sought, Kyle Diamantas, the Deputy Commissioner for Food, will be the acting FDA commissioner. Diamantas was appointed as a Senior Counselor and Acting Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods at the FDA by Kennedy in February 2026.

A 2025 Vanity Fair piece states:

Diamantas’s LinkedIn profile is a study in brevity. He received a law degree from the University of Florida in 2013. He started his next-listed job, as an attorney at the law firm Jones Day in Miami, in 2021, ascending to partner last year.

His now archived Jones Day bio described him as having “more than 10 years of experience advising food, cosmetic, dietary supplement, drug, and other life sciences and consumer goods clients on a wide range of regulatory, compliance, and enforcement matters.” Prior to that job, he worked as a senior associate at the Orlando office of the law firm Baker Donelson.

Concerningly, it appears that while Diamantas worked for Baker Donelson, he served as outside counsel for abortion corporation Planned Parenthood in Florida litigation regarding a property use dispute over a medical complex in Kissimmee, Florida. MMB Properties, a cardiology practice in the same complex, sought to prevent Planned Parenthood of Orlando from committing abortions based on property use restrictions that said "outpatient surgical centers" were not allowed. The restriction did include an exception for any activities if they were “ancillary and incidental to a physician's practice of medicine.” The court found in favor of Planned Parenthood, ruling that it was not in violation of the rule because abortion was not the primary 'service' provided. Planned Parenthood was allowed to resume abortions after a temporary injunction was lifted. According to Life Legal, in 2019, a settlement was reached in a related legal action that prohibited Planned Parenthood of Orlando from committing surgical abortions.

Abortion pill safety review

Makary's promised abortion pill safety review is highly anticipated. It's been a year since an analysis by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) found that nearly 11% of women (10.93%) experience life-threatening adverse events including sepsis, infection, and hemorrhaging following a mifepristone abortion. That means one in ten women experience at least one serious complication from mifepristone within 45 days — a rate 22 times higher than the "less than 0.5 percent" serious adverse events rate report by the FDA on the mifepristone label.

In addition, on May 4, the Supreme Court temporarily restored mail-order abortion pill dispensing after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals paused the dispensing of the abortion pill by mail-order while a Louisiana lawsuit regarding safety protocols on the abortion pill continues. According to the Fifth Circuit, the current rules are "based on flawed or nonexistent data." The Supreme Court's stay on the Fifth Circuit's decision expires on Thursday, May 14.

The Bottom Line:

Recently, Diamantas spoke in an interview about the results of the largest ever safety test carried out on infant formula, saying, "[Formula] is safe."

"When we're thinking of policies, we're not thinking about Democrat kids and Republican kids. We're thinking about what's best for all kids," he said.

Surely, then, removing approval for a drug that intentionally kills children in the womb should be top priority.