PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz called abortion “murder” during a campaign event in May, according to a newly revealed audio recording, using harsher language with conservative supporters than he typically has on the campaign trail.
The recording of Oz’s comments, first reported Wednesday by the liberal outlet the Daily Beast and confirmed by NBC News, draws renewed attention to Oz’s stance on one of the most pivotal issues in this fall’s midterm elections. It could make it even harder for the GOP nominee to soften his position, as some Republicans have tried to do in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision ending the constitutional right to abortion. And it opened the door to renewed Democratic criticism calling Oz extreme on the issue.
“I do believe life starts at conception, and I’ve said that multiple times,” Oz said during a tele-town hall a week before the May 17 primary, according to the Daily Beast. The comments came at the end of a contentious primary campaign in which Oz had to work to prove his conservative credentials to GOP voters, and to walk back previous comments critical of abortion restrictions.
