“Oz has a long history of statements that run counter to conservative beliefs on guns, abortion, and fracking.

Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary may turn on how GOP voters answer one question: Is Mehmet Oz really a conservative?”

“He’s expressed concerns about abortion restrictions, co-bylined advice columns that called for tougher gun laws — which he now says he didn’t write — and warned about the health risks from fracking. He has urged people to wear masks and praised Dr. Anthony Fauci, now a figure of disdain on the right. In 2010, he helped promote the Affordable Care Act, but now his campaign says he’d vote to repeal the law often called Obamacare.

The question of whether Republican primary voters can trust Oz is now one of the most pivotal issues in one of the country’s most crucial Senate races. While he has fame and Trump’s support, and is one of the GOP primary’s leading candidates, Oz’s rivals hammer him as a “Hollywood liberal” masquerading as a Republican, unspooling television footage and statements to prove their point.”

Mehmet Oz on abortion

“I’m not socially conservative,” Oz told the National Review of Medicine in 2008. ”I don’t believe that we should be intruding into the private lives of homosexuals and we should not be creating obstacles during the difficult time that women have when trying to terminate a pregnancy.”

But as recently as 2019, Oz raised concerns about a near-total abortion ban in Alabama. “I’m really worried about it. I’ve taken care of a lot of women who had issues around childbirth,” he told the Breakfast Club radio show.

Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, also explained the science countering the idea that there’s a heartbeat six weeks into pregnancy, undercutting the thinking behind so-called heartbeat bills to limit abortion.

“I mean, there are electrical exchanges at six weeks but the heart’s not beating,” Oz told the show, later adding, “If you’re going to make it a litmus test, ‘Is the heart beating?’ then really make it the heart beating.”

Oz on guns

“I’ve pulled bullets from bodies. Some victims I could save, and some I could not,” Oz said in 2018 as he opened a TV segment that featured doctors calling for tougher gun laws. “All around the country, America’s doctors and nurses are rising up and saying, ‘Enough is enough, this cannot be our new reality.’”

A year later, he hosted two guests to talk up the value of “red-flag laws,” which allow a judge to confiscate a person’s firearms if friends or family warn that the person is a danger to themselves or others. Over an almost six-minute segment, Oz didn’t challenge the guests (including one from the conservative Heritage Foundation) who promoted the idea.

And from 2007 until early this year, Oz was listed as the lead co-author on regular medical advice columns that sometimes called for stricter gun laws.

“Just think how many lives strict background checks and tighter automatic weapon, magazine and ammunition regulations could save without impinging on anyone’s rights,” read one 2017 piece. Another in 2019 called for reinstating the national ban on assault-style weapons.

Oz’s campaign disavowed those columns, saying that after 2009 they were written solely by Oz’s co-author, Michael Roizen, though Oz’s name still appeared as the lead byline. His recent financial disclosures showed Oz had a contract for the column until this January.

Oz on fracking

Other advice columns warned about the health risks of hydraulic fracturing, the natural gas drilling technique known as fracking.

“We wonder how eager the leaders of the natural gas industry would be to drink well water from a farm next to one of their drilling sites,” read one from 2014.

There are other examples of Oz’s shifting stances as he became a candidate. In December 2020, Oz posted on Facebook, “Your mask is a sign of love.” He’s gone from saying Fauci is a “pro” that “I respect a lot” to calling him a “tyrant.”

And after praising some aspects of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, and promoting it on a left-leaning California group’s website, Oz’s campaign said he “would not have voted for Obamacare.”

Original source can be found here