Janet Woodcock
Acting FDA Commissioner
Janet Woodcock is a career civil servant of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who has served in various leadership roles at the FDA under both Democratic and Republican administrations since 1986. Woodcock has served as Acting FDA Commissioner since January 2021 and is also reportedly under consideration to fill the FDA Commissioner role permanently. In 2003, Woodcock expressed harmful and false claims about access to Plan B during the review process of making Plan B more readily available. In recent years, Woodcock expressed support for evidence-based decisions regarding the approval of Plan B as an over-the-counter product and the approval of a protocol to expand the use of medication abortion. In recent months, Woodcock received criticism for her lack of oversight of the opioid crisis while serving as chief of the FDA’s Drug Division. In April 2021, under Woodcock’s direction, the FDA lifted Trump administration bans on dispensing abortion pills via telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Equity Forward has labeled Woodcock as green with caution due to previous harmful claims she made around reproductive health care access but acknowledges Woodcock has since made progress.