Appointees

Dr. Mehmet Oz

  • CMS Administrator
    • Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
    • Department of Health and Human Services
  • As Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Dr. Oz oversees operations of federal programs providing health coverage to more than 160 million people including Medicare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Health Insurance Marketplace. Notably, this means he is responsible for leading the Medicaid program, the largest public payer of reproductive health services. He also supervises enforcement of health care policies like the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a longstanding federal law requiring hospital emergency rooms to provide “stabilizing treatment,” such as emergency abortion care.

    Mehmet Oz assumed office on April 8, 2025.
Assumed Office Dr. Mehmet Oz

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Table of Contents

  1. Top red flags
  2. Statements
  3. Extremist connections
Top red flags

Top red flags

  • He stated on X that he is “100% Pro-Life” and that “life starts at conception.”
  • He does not believe the federal government has a role in protecting or ensuring access to abortion and said that states should “decide for themselves” on the issue of abortion.
  • He commonly spreads misinformation on health and wellness. According to the Scientific American, he has “long pushed misleading, science-free and unproven alternative therapies,” and research into his television show noted that only 46%” of the recommendations were supported by evidence.
Statements

Statements

Used false and inflammatory rhetoric about abortion, such as: 

  • During a town hall telephone call in 2022, he stated, “I do believe that life starts at conception” and “It’s still murder if you were to terminate a child whether their heart’s beating or not.” 
  • Following the leak of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, he claimed that “[t]he Court is right. Roe was wrongly decided.” 
  • According to CNN, during a Senatorial debate, he stated that, “There should not be involvement from the federal government in how states decide their abortion decisions.” In the same debate, he said he would not support “federal rules that block the abilities of states to do what they wish to do” on abortion. 
  • He has said he believes decisions around abortion should be made by “[w]omen, doctors, and local political leaders.” 
Extremist connections

Extremist connections

  • Dr. Oz was endorsed by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America during his Pennsylvania Senatorial campaign.

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