The new acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration is facing pressure from the anti-abortion lobby after it emerged that Kyle Diamantas had previously been retained as corporate counsel for Planned Parenthood, despite strong support from the Trump administration and top leaders in the movement.
Diamantas, 38, was previously the director of the Human Foods Program at the FDA and was selected to work as acting commissioner after President Donald Trump’s first FDA commissioner, Marty Makary, abruptly resigned this week. Almost immediately after his appointment was announced, anti-abortion activists began to peer into his past, finding at least one eyebrow-raising instance in his professional career for what conservatives view as an unsavory former client.
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Court documents reviewed by the Washington Examiner show Diamantas’s name appeared on at least six filings for a Florida Planned Parenthood affiliate in a land-use dispute that began in 2014, when a nearby medical practice sued to block Planned Parenthood from performing abortions at the site under deed restrictions barring outpatient surgeries. Diamantas’s name appears on related litigation filings in the case as recently as April 2016, when he was working at Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz.
For the anti-abortion lobby, which has already expressed dissatisfaction over the FDA’s long-stalled review of abortion-inducing drugs such as mifepristone and misoprostol, the details of Diamantas’s career past matter now more than ever.
White House spokesman Kush Desai sought to distance the new acting FDA pick from his role working for the private firm over a decade ago, telling the Washington Examiner on Friday that Diamantas was “a junior legal associate” assigned to the case by his superiors.
“He expressed his objections to representing Planned Parenthood, based on his personal convictions, and ultimately removed himself from the case,” Desai said.
While a handful of anti-abortion advocates privately expressed concern to the Washington Examiner over Diamantas’s career history, a notable majority of the public comments from advocates have expressed a cautious defense of Diamantas, despite his record, and others who say he should be judged not by his past but instead by what actions he takes now.
Anti-abortion advocate says Diamantas has a chance to show his ‘fortitude’
40 Days for Life President Shawn Carney, who often lauds Trump for nominating three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, said the key question was whether Diamantas had the “testicular fortitude” to pursue stronger oversight of abortion pills.
“Does he have the testicular fortitude to do anything about abortion pills?” Carney told the Washington Examiner when asked what is needed from Diamantas to win over other anti-abortion advocates. “Nobody listened to Trump or Vance or RFK wanting to investigate these dangerous abortion drugs” prior to his nomination.”
Carney argued the FDA under Makary moved too slowly despite repeated vows from Trump administration officials to review the safety regime surrounding mifepristone. That reality has made advocates in this space all the more wary when it comes to Trump’s next nomination for a permanent commissioner.
“We now have case after case of not only it hurting women, but also it going to boyfriends who then put them in milkshakes and smoothies and blueberry pancakes and use it to force abortion,” Carney said. “We have this forced-abortion crisis in our country because of the deregulation of these abortion pills.”
Still, Carney said he did not hold Diamantas’s prior association with Planned Parenthood against him.
“He worked for a firm that represented Planned Parenthood, and he recused himself because of his pro-life beliefs, which is exactly what a pro-life lawyer should do,” Carney said. “So, I think that’s one of the good things about him, frankly. And one thing that gives me hope.”
Mifepristone, the first drug in a two-part medication abortion protocol, is used in roughly two-thirds of the 1.1 million abortions annually in the United States.
In 2023, the Biden administration’s FDA removed in-person screening requirements before and after dispensing mifepristone, which had been part of the abortion pill protocol since the drug was initially approved in 2000. The move allowed telehealth providers to send the drug through the mail, facilitating at-home medication abortions.
Makary and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. each pledged during their Senate confirmation hearings that they would conduct a comprehensive safety review of mifepristone under the new at-home abortion protocol, but anti-abortion advocates increasingly believe the review has stalled.
In the backdrop of the new FDA head announcement, the Supreme Court on Thursday evening dealt a blow to anti-abortion advocates by preserving the status quo for online abortion pill sales as Louisiana’s lawsuit challenging the FDA’s mifepristone regulations continues through the courts. The ruling has increased pressure on the FDA to revisit the drug’s safety standards independently, absent a judicial mandate.
Following the ruling, the FDA’s X account posted that the agency would “press forward to complete the science-based safety review” and would “provide greater transparency” regarding milestones in the investigation.
FDA is committed to protecting the health and safety of women. The Supreme Court’s order, issued today, maintains the status quo with respect to the REMS governing mifepristone. The FDA will press forward to complete its science-based safety review of the mifepristone REMS and,…
— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) May 14, 2026
How Diamantas backed out of his Planned Parenthood case
Derek Goodwyn, an attorney who represented the medical practice suing Planned Parenthood in the Florida case, told the Washington Examiner that Diamantas was a junior associate assigned to the matter at a large law firm and later voluntarily removed himself from the litigation ahead of key proceedings before the Florida Supreme Court.
“He sacrificed something that could have been really good for his career,” Goodwyn, who described himself as a “pretty conservative guy,” told the Washington Examiner. “Any chance to get on a state Supreme Court case, even for free, you typically jump all over it.”
Despite being on opposing sides of the case at the time, Goodwyn said Diamantas told him at the time that he “just couldn’t deal with Planned Parenthood” because of his personal beliefs.
“He took himself off the case when it got to the Supreme Court, which takes guts,” Goodwyn said.
Goodwyn said the litigation itself largely centered on technical land-use and contractual questions over whether abortions qualified as outpatient surgeries under restrictive property covenants, noting that it was not a typical legal fight like the more high-profile cases involving abortion legality or access to abortion-inducing drugs.
Mea culpa to anti-abortion groups
Since becoming acting commissioner, Diamantas has contacted multiple anti-abortion leaders directly in an effort to reassure them he intends to take the abortion issue seriously.
Lila Rose, president of the anti-abortion group Live Action, said on X that Diamantas personally called her to express regret over the Planned Parenthood matter.
LET'S BE REAL: A change of cast at the FDA without action on Chemical Abortion Pills is only rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) May 13, 2026
Our team at @sflaction has filed EIGHT citizen petitions at the FDA. And with the FDA's complete lack of action or communication on those… https://t.co/df494D11xV
“Diamantas told me that reviewing the abortion pill is a top priority for him and the administration,” Rose wrote.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, initially reacted skeptically to the leadership shake-up.
“A change of cast at the FDA without action on Chemical Abortion Pills is only rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” Hawkins wrote on X Wednesday.
LET'S BE REAL: A change of cast at the FDA without action on Chemical Abortion Pills is only rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) May 13, 2026
Our team at @sflaction has filed EIGHT citizen petitions at the FDA. And with the FDA's complete lack of action or communication on those… https://t.co/df494D11xV
But Hawkins later said she also spoke with Diamantas and came away more optimistic.
“He has promised to be the most pro-life head of the FDA we’ve ever had,” Hawkins said Thursday.
Diamantas also spoke with Jennie Bradley Lichter, president of March for Life, according to the National Catholic Register.
Lichter said she felt “really comfortable that he is bringing in strong pro-life commitments” to the office and predicted he would become “a real champion at the FDA.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser told the Washington Examiner Makary’s exit creates an opportunity for the new FDA commissioner to return the agency “to its mission of protecting the public by ensuring drugs are safe.”
“Whether Kyle Diamantas is running the agency long-term or the administration expediently appoints someone new, now is the time to address the most significant public health crisis of our time: the widespread distribution of mail-order abortion drugs,” Dannenfelser added.
Choosing the next FDA commissioner
Anti-abortion advocates and Republican lawmakers are now increasing pressure on the White House to make abortion policy a major consideration in selecting the FDA’s next permanent commissioner.
The White House would not confirm whether Diamantas is under consideration for the permanent role when asked.
While it is unclear whether he will become the front-runner the administration seeks to confirm in the Senate, any possible nomination could also raise questions about additional litigation Diamantas has represented, which some critics may see as problematic.
For example, the Guardian reported this week that while working at the Miami firm Jones Day, he litigated on behalf of Abbott Laboratories in a case in which the company was accused of failing to inform customers that its premature infant formula increased the risk for a potentially fatal gastrointestinal condition. Abbott lost the case in 2024 and was forced to pay $495 million.
Overall, Republicans in Congress hope Diamantas will work to make clear his goals for addressing the abortion drug issue to quell any concerns about his professional past. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chairman of the Senate committee overseeing FDA confirmations, told the Washington Examiner he expects the administration to recognize how central the abortion pill issue has become for Republicans.
“I think the administration understands that the Republicans on the committee are going to be concerned with this issue and that the Republicans are going to want to have reassurances that this is actually an issue,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy has sent multiple oversight letters to the FDA regarding approval of a generic version of mifepristone and opened a broader committee investigation into the FDA’s oversight of abortion pill manufacturers and illicit abortion drugs imported from abroad.
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The senator said he believed the administration overall had so far treated the issue too casually.
“It’s not just the FDA commissioner, because sometimes the FDA commissioner might just be taking orders,” Cassidy said. “There has to be a commitment above that level.”
