How Dr. Oz abortion line handed Democrats a path to victory

Side-by-side images of a man in a suit with a blue tie and a man in a suit with a red tie

By Mary McNamaraCulture Columnist and Critic

Oct. 26, 2022 1:14 PM PT

As far as I can tell, two things happened during Tuesday night’s Senate-race debate between Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz: Fetterman reminded the audience that after five months, a stroke survivor often has auditory and speech issues that do not reflect cognitive ability, and Oz handed Democrats an attack line that may help them keep hold of the House and Senate.

A bit of a problem for Dr. Oz, since he is running as a Republican. In a race that could determine if the Republicans take the Senate.

Fetterman, who requested the aid of a text scroll, paused often while searching for words and garbled more than a few lines, including his greeting — he opened with “good night” when he clearly meant “good evening.” But nothing he said, didn’t say or said wrong came close to the shocking and potentially devastating impact of Dr. Oz’s response to a question about reproductive rights — which, he said, should be left to “women, doctors, local political leaders.”

Honestly, who cares that a man who recently survived a near-fatal stroke mistakenly said he didn’t “support the Supreme Court” when he clearly meant he didn’t support expanding the Supreme Court? The guy who never had a stroke, who’s a doctor for crying out loud, just blithely turned women’s health over to “local political leaders.”

Who does he even mean? State senators? Governors? Mayors? Water district supervisors? Coroners?

“Women” and “doctors” have made their feelings about reproductive rights very clear. According to the most recent Pew study, 63% of American women believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases; various studies reveal that the majority of doctors feel the same way.

Dr. Oz is not one of them. He has said he believes that life begins at conception and that all abortion is murder.

Unfortunately, what a woman or her doctors have to say about her reproductive health is moot if abortion is rendered illegal by “local political leaders” acting against the majority, as they have in multiple states since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade this summer.

So what Dr. Oz is really saying is that a woman’s autonomy over her own body comes down to who gets chosen, every four years, in local races with notoriously low turnouts.

In case you were wondering why women fought so hard for the national right guaranteed by Roe vs. Wade, this is it.

In Pennsylvania, abortion is legal up to 23 weeks and six days from the date of the last menstrual cycle. But November’s governor race will decide if that remains the case. The Democratic nominee, Josh Shapiro, has vowed to keep the law as it is; his Republican opponent, Doug Mastriano, supports banning abortions after six weeks and charging women who defy that ban with murder.

So Oz is effectively telling Pennsylvania voters that if they want reproductive rights to be determined by women and doctors, they should vote for Shapiro — and is offering similar advice to voters in every other midterm election.

“Women, doctors, local political leaders.” One of these things is so not like the other that it would be laughable if it weren’t so god-awful serious and revealing.

I can’t think of a phrase that better captures the Republicans’ bald attempt at minority rule or their belief that, like biology, geography is destiny.

It’s a good thing Oz’s Hippocratic oath — you know, the one that includes “do no harm” — does not apply to his membership in the Republican Party. Neither Fetterman nor Oz have pulled any punches in their creatively contentious race, and after four years of President Trump openly mocking people with various disabilities, Oz’s very un-doctorly smirk every time Fetterman searched for a word or fumbled a sentence may not disturb others as much as it did me. (Though the smirks certainly did not support his claim that he will return civility to the public discourse.)

But handing the Democrats a line that cuts through all the purported concerns about sin and the unborn with the blatant admission that local politicians should have the final word in determining women’s reproductive health? Well, I can’t imagine too many GOP operatives are going to thank him for that.

It certainly gives Fetterman a chance to push back against the notion that he’s the one with the communication issues.