El Sayed responded by asking whether or not Watters was circumcised. 

“Yeah, but I mean that’s a personal question, doctor,” Watters said, adding, “circumcision’s different than castration.” 

“It’s a problem that you think that you get to decide what happens between a parent, a doctor, and a patient,” el Sayed said. “And I’m just saying that yes, circumcision is surgery on a kid’s ding-a-ling. So if you really want to bring that up, you can. I just think you guys are really selective about how to talk about these things.”

Circumcision, or removing a patient’s foreskin, is a medical procedure with much more limited consequences than, for example, vaginoplasty in the context of trying to change genitalia from male to female.

Vaginoplasty for a male patient is a highly technical surgery that involves inverting the patient’s penis to effectively create a pseudovagina and remove the patient’s testicles. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, the procedure can last between four and six hours, whereas circumcision takes a matter of minutes.

Republicans for the past several election cycles have focused on Democrats’ support for transgender medical procedures for minors, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and invasive surgeries, as a tool to secure swing voters in tight elections. 

In the 2024 presidential race, the campaign for now-President Donald Trump spent millions in advertising focusing on then-Vice President Kamala Harris’s previous support for trans-identified inmates to be housed in prisons matching their chosen gender identity rather than their biological sex.

Some Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections season have been less vocal about the topic, but it has been an issue in contested primary races for safe-Democrat strongholds, such as Massachusetts.

El Sayed initially tried to dodge Watters’s question, tailoring his answer to a broader discussion of government involvement in medical decisions.

When Watters first broached the topic, el Sayed replied by citing “right to try” laws that allow patients with terminal conditions to try experimental medications in an attempt to save their lives. The candidate said right-to-try legislation, championed by Trump during his first term, is emblematic of “the idea that the government shouldn’t tell you what kind of healthcare you should have.” 

“You want to try on kids?” Watters asked in reply, after which the candidate referenced circumcision. 

Watters added, “Michigan’s not going for that. That is sick stuff.”

Cole Wozniak, a spokesperson for the el Sayed campaign, told the Washington Examiner after initial publication that discussing gender procedures for minors is a distraction from important issues in the election.

“Abdul has been clear that parents know what’s best for their families, and these decisions should be made by them and their doctors, not the government,” Wozniak said. “Fox News wants to talk about this in bad faith to change the subject on the issues everyday Michiganders are facing, rising gas prices, failing schools, unaffordable groceries, and the fact that folks can’t see a doctor.”

El Sayed positioned himself as a staunch LGBT advocate in the primary race against the more centrist Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI).

Included in el Sayed’s “Medicare for all” universal healthcare platform is the pillar of advancing “Healthcare Freedom for Women and LGBTQ+ Americans.” 

El Sayed supports federally codifying the Roe v. Wade-era abortion standard and opposes “any effort to criminalize certain medications and the use of lawfare or funding cuts to stop healthcare providers from providing full-spectrum healthcare that meet all the needs of their diverse communities.”

Before the primary, el Sayed told the outlet Pride Source he intends “to be a lion for rights.” 

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“When somebody’s coming for you, I intend to stand in the cut to protect you,” el Sayed told the outlet.