Press Release
Reproductive Freedom for All Responds to Trump’s Nomination of Mehmet Oz for Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services Administrator
Washington, DC — Today, President-elect Donald Trump announced he will nominate Mehmet Oz as the administrator for the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS). As CMS administrator, Oz would oversee one of the largest federal agencies that administers vital health care programs to over 100 million Americans. The administrator is key to determining whether state Medicaid programs include and expand coverage for family planning services for people with no or low incomes who would otherwise not have coverage. They also process complaints and conduct investigations into alleged violations of federal law that requires hospitals to provide emergency abortion care under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).
Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju released the following statement:
“Mehmet Oz is an unqualified anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading one of the largest federal agencies overseeing Americans’ health care. Pennsylvania voters already rejected him and his bold-faced attacks on reproductive freedom—and now Trump is giving him an opportunity to force them on all Americans through the implementation of his Project 2025 agenda. Oz has already fallen in line with Trump and it’s the American people who will suffer.”
Oz has a record of hostility towards abortion, praising the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and open the door for abortion bans, saying during his failed run for U.S. Senate that he “looked forward to supporting” anti-abortion policy. He believes in “personhood” ideology which could lead to bans on abortion, IVF, and some forms of contraception. He has also said that he believes abortion is “murder.”
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For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.