Key Point: “Trump’s selection of Oz — who has called abortion ‘murder,’ asserted that life begins at conception, and said that reproductive decisions should be between ‘women, doctors, [and] local political leaders’ — to lead the agency has caused alarm for some … Among the senators’ questions are whether Oz would implement recommendations from Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s policy blueprint for Trump’s second term, including directives to limit EMTALA’s protections.”

Rolling Stone: Dr. Oz Could Decide If Pregnant Patients Get Emergency Care In Anti-Abortion States

By Tessa Stuart 

• CMS oversees Medicare coverage for some 65 million Americans, and provides support for an additional 79 million covered by state-administered Medicaid and CHIP programs. It’s a massive portfolio — and one that wields enormous influence over access to birth control and reproductive health care for a broad swath of American women.

• Trump’s selection of Oz — who has called abortion “murder,” asserted that life begins at conception, and said that reproductive decisions should be between “women, doctors, [and] local political leaders” — to lead the agency has caused alarm for some, including from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who sits on the Senate committee that will hold his hearings.

• Among the senators’ questions are whether Oz would implement recommendations from Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s policy blueprint for Trump’s second term, including directives to limit EMTALA’s protections, including by “withdrawing the Biden Administration’s July 2022 guidance on EMTALA’s preemption of state-level abortion bans, ending investigations into alleged EMTALA violations, and eliminating existing injunctions and withdrawing or settling existing lawsuits under EMTALA.”

• The senators also question whether Oz would withdraw Biden-era guidance encouraging states to apply for Medicaid funding earmarked to expand access to reproductive health care, and whether he would, as Project 2025 recommends, exclude Planned Parenthood from state Medicaid funds.

• “Your record is alarming, and it is important that Congress and the public understand how you would use CMS authorities to impact reproductive care access if confirmed to serve as CMS Administrator,” Warren and Duckworth wrote, requesting Oz’s answers in writing by February 19.