President Donald Trump has seemingly settled on a nominee for the position of Surgeon General, after withdrawing the nomination of Casey Means for the role on Thursday. In a Truth Social post, the president announced that he will instead be nominating radiologist Nicole Saphier.

“Nicole is a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention, while at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnoses and treatments,” the president said. “She is also an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans. Dr. Nicole Saphier will do great things for our Country, and help, ‘MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN.’”

Saphier earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from the Ross University School of Medicine in Portsmouth, Dominica, and later served as a physician at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a professor at the University of Cornell’s medical school. In 2020, Saphier authored the book “Make America Healthy Again: How Bad Behavior and Big Government Caused a Trillion-Dollar Crisis” and became an early proponent of the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement espoused by now-Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and adopted by Trump.

Like many MAHA figures, Saphier was intensely critical of what she framed as the weaponization of science during the COVID-19 pandemic, accusing Democrats and mainstream media outlets of capitalizing on fear and a lack of information in order to advance political power and craft a narrative. “The politicizing of science makes the job of scientific discovery much harder … influencing research and closing off important deliberations on the outcomes,” she wrote in her 2021 book “Panic Attack: Playing Politics with Science in the Fight Against COVID-19.” She was also openly critical of mask and vaccine mandates and most forced closures, instead advocating for clear messaging on voluntary risk reduction to prevent contamination and avoid the more draconian measures that characterized the COVID-19 era.

Saphier has also voiced her support for pro-life positions and policies, citing her own experience becoming pregnant at the age of 17 and her decision to carry her son. In a 2019 Fox News op-ed, Saphier blasted Alabama state Rep. John Rogers (D) for a speech opposing pro-life legislation. “Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now or you kill them later. You bring them in the world unwanted, unloved, you send them to the electric chair. So, you kill them now or you kill them later,” Rogers said at the time. “Some parents can’t handle a child with problems. It could be retarded. It could have no arms and no legs.”

“I can only say with certainty that although my pregnancy may have been unwanted, my ‘kid’ certainly was not,” Saphier responded. “He has brought unparalleled joy to my life and has grown up to be a fine young man who will enrich the world by his presence for many years to come,” she added. “When I was just 17 and learned I was pregnant, I was suddenly faced with a life-and-death decision: get an abortion, or become a mom much sooner than I had ever expected. I chose motherhood, and am thankful every day that I am now blessed with a wonderful 19-year-old son.”

“Speaking from my own experience, I know that despite Rogers’ claim, not all products of unintentional pregnancies are ‘unwanted’ and born ‘unloved.’ Yes, the pregnancy itself may have been unwanted, but that does not mean the end result is destined for the ‘electric chair,’ as Rogers put it,” Saphier wrote. “Despite the glaringly obvious inappropriateness of his use of the word ‘it’ to refer to a human being and ‘retarded,’ the tone of these comments is reminiscent of the now-discredited eugenics movement, which advocated selective breeding of humans to remove what were considered ‘inferior’ genetic traits and groups,” she continued, noting that many children may later develop “issues” such as serious illnesses and even cancer. “Does Rep. Rogers advocate ‘killing them now’ if a 2-year-old loses her arm in a car accident, or if a 10-month-old is diagnosed with a rare liver cancer? They will live with a form of disability. … Where is the line in the sand regarding killing the children now or later for Rogers?”

In a 2023 Fox News appearance, Saphier called on the GOP to adopt a unified front against abortion, following months of mixed messaging from Trump. In January 2023, after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Trump blamed Republicans’ 2022 midterm losses on “the abortion issue,” which he said “lost large numbers of voters” due to Republicans’ pro-life policies. In September of that same year, Trump again faulted Republicans for rushing to enact pro-life legislation after the Supreme Court’s monumental ruling, calling such laws “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake” and instead urging the GOP to reach a moderated “consensus” on the issue.

In response, Saphier warned that Republicans have “a massive messaging problem” on abortion. “When you look at the major issues that people go to the polls for to vote, when it comes to abortion, the Democrats are unified and the Republicans are completely fractured,” she said. “Moving forward, they have to get their messaging together,” Saphier added, noting that Republicans risk facing significant losses at the ballot box without a coherent position on abortion.

Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, expressed encouragement at the news of Saphier’s nomination. “It’s great news that President Trump’s nominee for Surgeon General recognizes an unborn child in the womb is a person,” she told The Washington Stand. “Good health care begins with respect for life. My hope is that Dr. Saphier’s experience and courage as a mom will guide her efforts to shape the Trump administration.”