February 13, 2025

Warren, Duckworth Press Trump Health Nominee Dr. Oz on Dangerous Anti-Abortion Views

As head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Dr. Mehmet Oz would oversee reproductive care access for millions of women

“Throughout your career, you have staunchly opposed abortion, which makes it difficult to believe you would take women’s sexual and reproductive health seriously.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) pressed Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Trump’s nominee for the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), on his hostile anti-abortion record as his nomination process begins. As CMS Administrator, Dr. Oz would be in charge of Medicare, Medicaid, and Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage, exercising broad authority over reproductive health care access.

“Given the role CMS plays in shaping reproductive health care access, the CMS Administrator will cause grave damage if they do not stand firmly in defense of women’s reproductive rights. Yet throughout your career, you have staunchly opposed abortion, which makes it difficult to believe you would take women’s sexual and reproductive health seriously,” wrote the lawmakers.

Dr. Oz has a hostile record on abortion that raises serious concerns about how he might use his role at CMS to limit access to critical reproductive health care. Dr. Oz praised the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, has described himself as “100% pro-life,” and has stated that he looks “forward to supporting” anti-abortion policy. Notably, he also said that a woman’s decision to get an abortion should be up to “women, doctors, [and] local political leaders [emphasis added]” — a particularly concerning comment on women’s health.

“Leaving the issue of women’s reproductive freedom to the whims of local officials — a position you have consistently expressed – is dangerous and has already produced a patchwork of abortion laws across the country, creating legal confusion, harms to public health, and vast disparities in access to care,” wrote the lawmakers.

Given Dr. Oz’s alarming record on reproductive rights, the lawmakers demanded answers to a series of questions about how he would use CMS authorities to impact reproductive health care access if confirmed to serve as its Administrator.

The letter comes just before the Senate vote on Robert F. Kennedy’s confirmation for HHS Secretary. In his confirmation hearing, Kennedy said: “I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy…I’m going to implement his policies.”

In his first three weeks in office, Donald Trump has already worked to roll back women’s reproductive rights. Trump signed a slew of executive orders undoing Biden-era protections and reinstating harmful policies implemented in Trump’s first term. The Trump administration also scrubbed critical information from government websites, eliminated the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access, and revoked guidance directing CMS and HHS to increase access to abortion services.

Senator Warren has led the fight to protect women’s reproductive rights: 

  • In December 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) reintroduced the Health and Location Data Protection Act, legislation banning data brokers from selling Americans’ sensitive personal information. Data gathered by brokers has been used to circumvent the Fourth Amendment, out LGBTQ+ Americans, and stalk and harass individuals. Recently, some brokers have been caught selling the cellphone-based location data of people visiting abortion clinics, risking the safety and security of women seeking basic health care.
  • In September 2024, at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Elizabeth Warren highlighted the dangerous consequences women have faced two years after Donald Trump’s Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Senator Warren recounted recent tragedies in states with abortion bans and warned that doctors’ ability to perform life-saving care in emergency situations is under attack. 
  • In June 2024, following the Supreme Court’s decision in Moyle v. U.S., the case that weighed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), Senator Elizabeth Warren released a statement criticizing the Supreme Court’s decision to “wait until after the election to tell Americans whether women who are in crisis can get the emergency medical care they need.” 
  • In March 2024, following oral arguments in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the first abortion case the Supreme Court has taken up since the reversal of Roe v. Wade, Senator Elizabeth Warren released a statement reiterating calling for “restor(ing) the protections of Roe v. Wade and protect reproductive freedom for all.”
  • On March 4, 2024, Senators Warren, Duckworth (D-Ill.), and 46 Democratic colleagues introduced a bill to protect IVF access nationwide.
  • On February 28, 2024, Senator Warren delivered a floor speech on Senate Republicans’ opposition to Senator Tammy Duckworth’s (D-Ill.) bill to ensure families have access to the services they need to have a baby, including protections for IVF.
  • On January 22, 2024, the 51st Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Senator Warren delivered a floor speech and published an op-ed about the fight ahead to restore abortion rights and protect reproductive freedom.
  • On December 15, 2023, Senators Warren, Baldwin (D-Wisc.), and 40 Democratic colleagues introduced a resolution affirming their support for the FDA’s scientific judgment that medication abortion is safe and effective.
  • On July 13, 2023, Senator Warren and colleagues sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) urging the Department to protect the right to travel and the constitutional right to interstate travel following state-level efforts to impede women’s right to travel to other states for abortion care.
  • On June 23, 2023, one year after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Senator Warren and five Senate colleagues released a report titled One Year Without Roe: Health Care Providers Speak Out on Criminalized Care and Compounding Confusion, based on testimony from leading health care providers revealing the direct, immediate threats to women’s reproductive health.
  • On May 30, 2023, Senators Warren, Duckworth (D-Ill.), Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Smith (D-Minn.) sent letters to five leading health care organizations representing physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and hospitals – the American Medical Association, Physicians for Reproductive Health, National Nurses United, the American Pharmacists Association, and the American Hospital Association – asking for updates since the organizations’ responses to the senators’ questions about threats to abortion sent in August and September 2022.
  • On April 7, 2023, Senator Warren released a statement on the decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to stay the FDA’s decades-old approval of mifepristone.
  • On March 8, 2023, Senators Warren, Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Hirono introduced the Upholding Protections for Health and Online Location Data (UPHOLD) Privacy Act, legislation that would expand protections for Americans’ personal health data by preventing companies from profiting off of personally identifiable health data for advertising purposes, allow consumers greater access to and ownership over their personal health information, restrict companies’ ability to collect or use information about personal health without user consent, and ban data brokers from selling location data.
  • On March 8, 2023, Senators Warren, Mazie Hirono, along with Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) sent a letter to Walgreens CEO Rosalind Brewer, expressing concern regarding recent reports that the company would not dispense medication abortion in 21 states where Republican Attorneys General have threatened the company.
  • On February 13, 2023, Senator Warren and eleven other senators sent a letter to President Biden urging his administration to take new steps to protect reproductive freedom amid divided control of Congress and increasing efforts to restrict access to abortion. 
  • On November 18, 2022, Senator Warren led eight of her colleagues in a letter encouraging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to defend America's reproductive rights, and to consider steps to protect and expand access to medication abortion. 
  • On November 1, 2022, Senator Warren, Duckworth, Hirono, and Smith released a report – based on information provided by leading health care providers – revealing the devastating consequences of state abortion bans and restrictions enacted by right-wing legislatures and the impacts of Senate Republicans’ extreme proposal to ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks.
  • On August 4, 2022, Senator Warren, Hirono, and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) urging concrete actions the Department can take to help meet President Biden’s goal of protecting and expanding access to medication abortion.
  • On July 29, 2022, Senators Warren and Hirono led 23 of their colleagues in a letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), calling on the VA to take immediate administrative action to offer abortions and all abortion-related services to veterans and eligible dependents. 
  • On July 21, 2022, Senators Warren and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) sent letters to Bark Technologies, Gaggle.net, GoGuardian, and Securly Inc., raising concerns that the software these companies use to monitor students’ online activity could be used to criminalize or punish students who are seeking information about abortion services and reproductive health care.
  • On July 19, 2022, Senators Warren, Smith, and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) led a group of their Democratic colleagues in introducing the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act to provide robust mandatory funding for the Title X Family Planning Program.
  • On July 14, 2022, Senators Warren, Cory Booker (D-N.J), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and over a dozen Senate Democrats wrote to President Biden and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, urging them to immediately declare national and public health emergencies over Americans’ access to reproductive care.
  • On July 11, 2022, Senators Warren and Klobuchar sent letters to Facebook and Instagram, calling on them to address their reported censorship of posts related to abortion services, following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
  • On July 7, 2022, Senator Warren announced two key data brokers’ commitments to permanently stop selling the location data of people seeking abortion services.
  • On June 25, 2022, following the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Senators Warren and Smith wrote an op-ed in the New York Times laying out the next steps in the fight to protect the right to an abortion, including calling for the declaration of a public health emergency.
  • On June 23, 2022, Senators Warren and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) introduced the Stop Anti-Abortion Disinformation Act, legislation that would crack down on false advertising that crisis pregnancy centers employ to dissuade patients from getting the reproductive care they need, including abortion care. The Senators reintroduced the legislation in April 2023. 
  • On June 15, 2022, Senator Warren introduced the Health and Location Data Protection Act, legislation that bans data brokers from selling some of the most sensitive data available about everyday Americans: their health and location data. 
  • On June 7, 2022, Senators Warren and Murray led 23 of their Senate colleagues in a letter to President Biden urging him to immediately issue an executive order directing the federal government to develop a national plan to defend Americans’ fundamental reproductive rights, including their right to an abortion.
  • On May 17, 2022, Senator Warren led thirteen of her Senate colleagues in letters to two data brokers demanding answers regarding their collection and sale of the cellphone-based location data of people who visit abortion clinics such as Planned Parenthood. 
  • On May 10, 2022, Senator Warren delivered a speech on the floor of the United States Senate on the need to protect the constitutional right to an abortion, pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, and fight back against Republican extremism. 
  • On May 9, 2022, Senator Warren wrote an op-ed in Marie Claire about the need to enshrine the right to an abortion in federal law. 
  • On May 3, 2022, when the draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked, Senator Warren spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court twice to activists, protestors, and the nation about the need to protect abortion rights. 

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