WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — The Trump administration has abruptly withdrawn the nomination of Dr. David Weldon for director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), reportedly due to concern he lacked enough Senate votes to be confirmed.

Weldon is a former pro-life congressman from Florida who distinguished himself by speaking out in the Terri Schiavo case and authoring the Weldon Amendment, which prohibits local, state, and federal entities from requiring health insurance plans to cover abortion if they receive taxpayer dollars.

Fox News quotes an unnamed source stating that, to the White House, it “became clear that the votes weren’t there in the Senate for him to get confirmed. This would have been a futile effort.” There are conflicting reports as to whether Weldon was informed last night or only learned the news while on his way to Thursday’s hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions (HELP) Committee, which has been canceled.

It is currently being speculated that Weldon faced ambivalence over past comments suggesting there are “legitimate questions” about a link between conventional vaccines and autism, an issue that has similarly hounded President Donald Trump’s Secretary for Health & Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Kennedy, who enjoys greater name recognition than Weldon and had more political capital invested in him as part of Trump’s 2024 coalition, assuaged those fears by convincing senators like Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) that he was less opposed to conventional vaccines than his history suggested.

Since his confirmation, Kennedy has endorsed vaccines as part of the response to a measles outbreak in Texas, while at the same time directing the CDC to launch a review of whether there is a link between vaccines and autism.