Mehmet Oz has said he supports more restrictions on abortion but hasn’t spelled out penalties

Before he won the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, Dr. Mehmet Oz was accused by a fellow Republican of being "pro-abortion." 

Now, with the November general election on the horizon, a group that supports abortion rights claims that Oz "wants to make abortion a crime."

The attack comes from Planned Parenthood Votes in a TV ad. The 30-second spot begins with clips from three TV news anchors reporting about the Supreme Court’s June 24 reversal of Roe v. Wade and the ruling’s aftermath.

The ad shows a montage of the anchors saying: "The Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade … several states looking to ban abortions … with no exceptions for rape or incest." 

Then the ad’s narrator claims: 

"And now Mehmet Oz is so extreme, he wants to make abortion a crime in Pennsylvania."

 Oz supported the overturning of Roe, which protected access to abortion nationwide. He also favors letting states set their own abortion laws. Since the Roe reversal, performing an abortion is now a felony in some states.

Oz backs abortions only in the limited cases of rape, incest, and if the life of the woman is in danger. He has not specified what criminal penalties, if any, he would support if a woman had an unlawful abortion.

Oz also has not commented publicly on Republican efforts to remove the right to an abortion from Pennsylvania’s constitution.

To back its claim that Oz wants to criminalize abortions in Pennsylvania, the ad includes a footnote citing conservative talk show host Sean Hannity’s radio program from Dec. 23, 2021. 

That day, Hannity asked Oz about choosing Supreme Court justices and referenced Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Mississippi case that the court later used to overturn Roe. 

Oz said he wanted the justices "to make their decisions based on what the Constitution says." Oz also said he is "100% pro-life," but supports allowing abortions in cases of rape, incest or to protect the mother’s life. 

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe, Oz said he was "relieved that protecting the lives of America’s unborn children will once again be decided by the people through their elected representatives."

After Roe was reversed, the laws in some states, including Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Missouri and Tennessee, make it a felony to perform an abortion at any stage of pregnancy, or to do one outside of specific circumstances, such as medical emergencies.

Planned Parenthood Votes cited to PolitiFact examples of Oz touting his stance on abortion, including his pledge to "be a bold voice in the Senate and a proud champion for the ‘pro-life’ movement." 

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Donald Trump won Pennsylvania in the 2020 presidential election.

The group argued that "there is simply no way" Oz can claim to be "100% pro-life" and support reversing Roe "without supporting efforts to make abortion a crime across the country."

While Oz has said that he supports restrictions, he’s been silent on the question of what criminal penalties, if any, should be applied to patients or doctors.

Abortion is currently legal in Pennsylvania through the 23rd week of pregnancy, and after that if the patient’s life or health is in danger, but there is a new effort under way to curtail abortion rights. 

Pennsylvania currently has a Democratic governor, Tom Wolf, who supports abortion rights, but it has a Republican-controlled state legislature. On July 8, the state’s Senate and House passed a bill that would ask voters to amend the state constitution to declare that there is no right to abortion in Pennsylvania. The bill must be passed a second time and the earliest voters could weigh in is 2023.

If voters support the question to amend the state constitution, it would not ban abortion or change the existing law that makes abortion legal; that would require the state to pass a new law. 

Under such a new law, a governor likely would be unable to cite the state constitution if they wished to issue executive orders to protect abortion rights, said Pennsylvania State University law professor Dara Purvis. 

New laws restricting abortion would also be more difficult to challenge in court on state constitutional grounds, said University of Pennsylvania law professor Allison Hoffman. 

We did not find that Oz has made any statements about the constitutional amendment push. His campaign did not respond to our questions on whether he supports it. The campaign called the claim about making abortion a crime a "lie," citing Oz’s Hannity interview. 

Planned Parenthood Votes is a super PAC affiliated with Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit providing reproductive health care services, including abortion. The affiliate has spent nearly $3 million in the 2021-22 election cycle, $2.53 million of it against Oz, according to the nonprofit OpenSecrets.

In the Senate race, Oz, a physician and former TV talk show host, faces Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.

The race could help decide which party controls the Senate, which is now split 50-50. Inside Elections rates the race as "tilts Republican" and Sabato’s Crystal Ball rates it as a toss-up. 

Planned Parenthood Votes said Oz "wants to make abortion a crime in Pennsylvania."

Oz suported the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe, which returned abortion regulation to the states. Oz said he favors letting states set their on abortion laws, and since the Roe reversal, some states have made it a felony to perform abortions.

Oz says he backs abortions only in the limited cases of rape, incest, and if the life of the woman is in danger. He has not specified what criminal penalties, if any, he would support if a woman had an unlawful abortion.

The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details. We rate it Half True.

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