Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has prevailed in a high-stakes showdown with Trump administration health appointee Dr. Mehmet Oz, convincing him to retract statements supporting controversial gender “transitions” for minors and opposing the Supreme Court decision allowing states to protect unborn life.

President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) raised concerns with the socially conservative senator, stoking further speculation by not answering a slate of questions Hawley sent him.

“I’ve been reading up on Dr. Oz — I see he’s praised trans surgeries for minors and supported hormone treatments & puberty blockers for kids in the past. And has also criticized state laws protecting life,” wrote Senator Hawley on March 19. “I hope he’s changed his views to match President Trump! We need the Trump agenda at CMS.”

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For instance, on one episode of his former talk show, Oz gave a glowing interview to a mother transitioning her young son into a girl, saying that the boy “sparkles” and asking the child, “Do you remember when your parents thought you were a boy?”

Hawley shared details of his passionate fight on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” on March 27. “We saw in his first term there were quite a number of people who slipped through, who then got into their positions and actively undermined what Donald Trump had run on. I don’t want to see that. And I’m not going to vote for somebody who I think is going to undermine the president’s agenda,” Hawley told Perkins, noting Oz had not yet answered his letters.

Oz has since backed down. “Since I hosted the Dr. Oz show, medical research on this topic has shown that previous clinical approaches were not sufficiently evidence-based,” he replied in a letter Hawley shared on his X account on March 31.

Oz committed that he would not issue any national coverage determination, which would force states to cover transgender procedures such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone injections, and surgical chest or genital mutilation at taxpayers’ expense. He said he supports President Trump’s executive order protecting women’s sports from competition against men on the field, or changing in front of men in the locker room.

Oz also agreed to a move that could further undermine the pseudo-scientific basis of transgender ideology, promising to “publish a review of the existing literature on best practices for promoting the health of children who assert gender dysphoria, rapid-onset gender dysphoria, or other identity-based confusion.”

CMS has the potential to significantly impact abortion, transgenderism, or any other health issue by dispersing $1.5 trillion in federal funds. Shortly after the Dobbs decision, the Biden-Harris administration’s CMS director, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, said that states which wished to provide Medicaid funding to facilitate abortions “for women traveling from a state that has restricted or prohibited abortion are encouraged to engage with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.”

Oz replied that, “yes,” he supports the Dobbs decision. “I am unequivocally pro-life, and if confirmed, I look forward to advancing a pro-life agenda at CMS,” he wrote. Oz vowed he and his team will exclusively be “making sound decisions based on conservative principles and the facts.”

“Dr. Oz has responded to my questions re: past support for trans treatments for minors & his criticism of right to life. Oz now disavows his previous support for trans surgeries & drugs for minor children. He pledges to ‘end chemical and surgical mutilation of children,’” Hawley revealed on March 31. “He also walks back past criticism of state pro-life laws, says he supports the Dobbs decision, and is ‘unequivocally pro-life.’ He vows to enforce conscience protections, end the abuse of EMTALA, and work to end funding for abortion providers,” he added.

“Every member of the Trump administration is working from the same playbook, President Trump’s playbook, to restore commonsense policies and put an end to left-wing ideological nonsense afflicting our government,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai. “We look forward to the Senate’s swift confirmation of Dr. Oz.”

Trump strongly supported Oz in an unsuccessful Senate race against Democrat John Fetterman. During the race, Oz criticized state pro-life laws. In 2024, Trump strongly embraced gender sanity and won the 2024 presidential election handily, carrying the state of Pennsylvania along with every swing state.

Hawley’s success heartened social conservatives. “Thank you,” replied Perkins to Hawley on social media. “This is good news, and it once again shows that eventually, the truth prevails. Stand for truth and others will join you!”

“Great to see this clarity from Dr. Oz on protecting unborn children and children suffering from gender confusion,” added the Family Research Council.

LifeNews Note: Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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