The sole U.S. Senate debate for the open seat in Pennsylvania was held Wednesday night in, you know, Pennsylvania, between Democratic candidate John Fetterman, and Republican candidate Mehmet Oz. And during a segment talking about abortion, Oz added a third party to the “woman and her doctor” framing pro-choice activists use, suggesting he is in fact in favor of banning it.
You can watch the remark above, but we’ll put in context and quote it below.
Of course, it’s well known that the Republican Party platform openly calls for abortion to be banned nationwide, and Republicans in the Senate have already started drafting bills to do just that, should they control congress the next time a Republican is president. Banning abortion is of course extremely unpopular with voters, so many Republicans are going out of their way to sound like they don’t support this.
Take Oz for instance, who has shifted his opinions on abortion several times over the last few years. This year he has said he wants Roe v. Wade overturned, but also claims to support very limited access to abortion in the case of rape or incest. He has also refused to say whether he would support a national ban.
That vibe continued during the debate when the topic of abortion came up. Oz didn’t actually say whether he would vote for a national abortion ban, only that he doesn’t think the federal government should rule on “how states decide their abortion decisions.”
Then he said this: “I don’t want the federal government involved with that at all. I want women, doctors, local political leaders, letting the democracy that’s always allowed our nation to thrive to put the best ideas forward so states can decide for themselves.”
In other words, Oz seems to be arguing that while he opposes the federal government interfering with a woman’s medical decisions, he supports local government interfering with a woman’s medical decisions. He made that clearer in a follow up question, where he said only that he thinks local, not national governments should ban abortion. Of course, Oz is a medical doctor who has openly mocked people with disabilities.
Fetterman, for his part, said, “I believe abortion rights [are] a universal right for all women in America. I believe abortion is health care, and I believe that is a choice that belongs with each woman and her doctor.”