Senator Josh Hawley has persistently asked Dr. Oz questions about his views on transgenderism. The doctor, who is the president’s nominee to head the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), has a history of endorsing transgender medical interventions on his television show—up until a few short years ago, Oz openly supported the use of transgender surgeries for minors and cross-sex hormones.

To learn the doctor’s present positions, Senator Hawley, who is not on the Senate Finance Committee and will not be in a position to interview him, provided a two-page questionnaire that addressed, in part, transgender treatments. Dr. Oz is not required to answer the questionnaire, since Hawley is not on the Finance Committee. On his show, however, Dr. Oz appeared to support transgender “care” for children:

In the show, Dr Oz discussed the right way to ‘nurture’ a transgender child and spoke about treatments including puberty blockers and gender-affirming surgeries.

‘What does it mean to be a boy? What does it mean to be a girl? Those two simple questions are infinitely complex and gut wrenching for parents of children who are born transgender,’ Dr Oz said at the start of the show.

Speaking about Josie, eight, who was born male, Dr Oz said: ‘Her sex on the outside didn’t match how she felt on the inside, and that’s how every transgender child feels.’

His support of transgender care was apparent at the time. Or he was simply saying what was expedient, given his audience.

Dr. Oz was asked during his run for Senate in 2022 about his view on puberty blockers; here is what he said:

Asked at the time if he supported a ban on puberty blockers for children, Dr Oz said he would want a doctor to make the decision with the patient.

‘I’m very dubious of giving young children pyramid [sic] blockers, surgery or anything else. I mean, I can’t imagine scenarios where that will be welcomed, but I don’t want to interfere with doctors and parents working together.’

This response suggests reservations about mutilating children, but not a commitment to ban such abuse of children, which explains Senator Hawley’s reservations.

At Dr. Oz’s hearing, senators were obsessed with potential cuts he might make to Medicare and Medicaid. At this stage, expecting him to promise not to cut these services, when he doesn’t know the status of investigating waste and fraud, is absurd. So, the issue of transgender “care” was ignored:

The issue of transgender care for minors did not come up during the hearing.

However, CMS has already weighed in on the issue. The agency sent an alert to hospitals March 5 reminding them to protect children from ‘chemical and surgical mutilation.’ It said that it could draft more requirements for providers on the issue soon.

Several hospitals also halted gender-affirming care for minors after a Trump executive order was delivered in late January. Two federal court orders have put the federal restrictions on hold for now.

As a result, restrictions on transgender medical practices are only temporary, and future prohibitions for these interventions are uncertain.

We need to be certain that Dr. Oz supports President Trump’s agenda unequivocally and that he is committed to protecting our children.

Image: DonkeyHotey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, unaltered.