Hillary Clinton Confirms "Reproductive Health" Includes Abortion and Admits Obama will Work to Dismantle Abortion Laws around the World

By Kathleen Gilbert

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was confronted on her avowed commitment to eugenicist Margaret Sanger's global agenda, and asked whether the Obama administration would work to overturn pro-life laws around the world - a priority that Clinton confirmed.

In a hearing to discuss the Obama administration's foreign policy, New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith questioned Clinton on her statements upon receiving Planned Parenthood's Margaret Sanger award on March 27. Clinton had said she was "really in awe" of the Planned Parenthood founder.

"The 20th century reproductive rights movement, really embodied in the life and leadership of Margaret Sanger, was one of the most transformational in the entire history of the human race," Clinton had said. She also said that Sanger's work "is not done."

Smith yesterday asked Clinton about her praise for Sanger's eugenic agenda, saying "it is extraordinarily difficult [to see] how anyone could be in awe" of Sanger, who "made no secret whatsoever" of her views.

"With all due respect, Madam Secretary, Sanger's legacy was indeed transformational, but not for the better if one happens to be poor, disenfranchised, weak, disabled, a person of color, and unborn child, or among the many so-called undesirables Sanger would exclude and exterminate from the human race," said Smith.

"Sanger's prolific writings dripped with contempt for those she considers to be unfit to live," he continued. "Sanger was an unapologetic eugenicist and racist, who said, and I quote, 'The most merciful thing a family does for one of its infant members is to kill it.'

"She also said, on another occasion, quote, 'Eugenics is the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems.'"

Smith asked, "As part of Sanger's work that remains undone," whether the Obama administration seeks "in any way to weaken or overturn pro-life laws and policies in African and Latin American countries, either directly or through multilateral organizations, including and especially the United Nations, African Union, or the OAS, or by way of funding NGOs like Planned Parenthood?"

Clinton replied: "It is my strongly held view that you are entitled to advocate and everyone who agrees with you should be free to do so anywhere in the world, and so are we."

Clinton confirmed that the Obama administration's definition of "reproductive health" includes abortion, and that, "We are now an Administration that will protect the rights of women, including their rights to reproductive health care."

Congressman Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska also told Clinton he was "stunned" by her commitment to Sanger, and that he was "deeply grieved" at her answer to Congressman Smith.

"She [Sanger] advocated for the elimination of the disabled, the downtrodden, and the Black child," Fortenberry objected. "I don't believe these ideologies have a place in our pluralistic society."

Decrying taxpayer funding of abortion overseas as "a form of neo-colonialism" that is "elitist, paternalistic, and an assault on the dignity of the poor," Fortenberry challenged Clinton to instead pursue foreign policy that "upholds the genius of womanhood and the life nestled within her."

Clinton responded by emphasizing that the "choice" to carry or kill an unborn child should be available "for all women."

Commenting in a later statement on Clinton's remarks, Smith said: "It is evident that Mrs. Clinton and President Obama want to force the tragedy of abortion upon women around the world especially and including in countries where democratically elected leaders want to continue to protect their unborn children.

"There are other ways in which both mother and baby are protected, cared for and helped - with food, nutrition, clean water and life-affirming healthcare," he said.

"Secretary Clinton's inability to see this will mean more babies will die and more women will suffer the consequence of abortion as a result of U.S. foreign policy overseas."

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Secretary Clinton "In Awe" of Racist Eugenicist Margaret Sanger