Presidential Democrat hopeful Hillary Clinton, like her husband Bill, has claimed in the past that she wants abortions to be rare. Political spin aside, an examination of Clinton’s entire record proves that nothing could be further from the truth.
A mere nine years ago, in a June 4, 2007, CNN discussion with leading Democratic presidential contenders John Edwards and Barack Obama at the Sojourners Presidential Forum on Faith, Values, and Poverty, Hillary called abortion a “moral issue” and claimed that she wanted “common ground” on abortion. She even told Dr. Joel C. Hunter, senior pastor of Northland Church in Florida, that she wanted abortion to be “rare”:
And that is what I have tried to both talk about and reach out about over the last many years, going back, really, at least 15 years, in talking about abortion being safe, legal, and rare. And, by rare, I mean rare.
Read full transcript here or watch the video below:
Clinton’s remarks to this pastor at a town hall were quite the opposite of her stance on January 23, 1999 (eight years prior), at NARAL’s celebration of the 26th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. There, Clinton called a woman’s choice to kill her preborn child a “fundamental American value”…
I want to congratulate NARAL for calling choice what it is, a fundamental American value, and Freedom.
Does Clinton’s stance change every decade? Will the real Hillary Clinton please stand up?
Perhaps the real Hillary Clinton did stand up, only weeks ago, when she thanked the nation’s largest chain of abortion clinics, Planned Parenthood, for their support. “I’ve been proud to stand with Planned Parenthood for a long time,” Clinton said, “and as president I will always have your back.”
So much for finding “common ground.”
Clinton’s gratitude naturally came on the heels of a large cache of money set aside by Planned Parenthood to endorse Clinton in her presidential race.
Clinton was apparently so uninterested in “finding common ground” that she even lavished praise upon Planned Parenthood Greater Texas abortionist, Dr. Amna Dermish, who performs abortions up to 24 weeks — well past viability. As Live Action News previously reported, Dermish was caught on tape by the Center for Medical Progress callously describing how she tries to abort babies “trunk intact.”
Clinton admires Planned Parenthood so much that in 2009, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepted Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger Award at a Gala in Houston, Texas. During her speech, Clinton stated that she admired the founder of Planned Parenthood, who was a staunch advocate of eugenics and believed that birth control was the way to make sure those she viewed as ‘unfit’ — especially the poor and the disabled — didn’t reproduce.
“I admire Margaret Sanger enormously, her courage, her tenacity, her vision,” said Clinton. “I am really in awe of her; there are a lot of lessons we can learn from her life.” What lessons, exactly?
Clinton is so enamored by Planned Parenthood, that she — like the other politicians who accept the abortion giant’s campaign cash — refuses to look at the damage they do to young people. In her speech, Clinton thanked Planned Parenthood, for “being there” for “the young people who have the tough questions that they’re afraid to ask their parents. The sexual assault survivors who turn to Planned Parenthood for compassionate care…” Surely Clinton has forgotten about the organization’s failure to report child sexual abuse and an undercover video from Live Action which shows Planned Parenthood counselors exercising questionable and even dangerous judgment on how to advise minors on sexual matters:
Clinton also bemoaned recent efforts by many states to defund Planned Parenthood after videos showed them entangled in a baby body parts scandal which prompted an ongoing federal Congressional investigation. She’s not alone, though — the Democrat members of the Select Investigative Panel have repeatedly called for an end to the investigation… and have repeatedly accepted campaign funding from Planned Parenthood.
While Clinton said abortion should be rare in 2007, she now pushes against all manner of abortion restrictions. “In just the first three months of 2016,” she lamented in her Planned Parenthood speech, “states across the country introduced more than 400 restrictions on abortion. Eleven states have defunded Planned Parenthood in the last year, cutting some women off from their only health care provider. And, of course on a national level, Republicans in Congress have been willing to shut down the entire government over Planned Parenthood funding.” (Really? Who is it that’s willing to see the government shut down rather than see Planned Parenthood — and their campaign coffers — lose a penny?)
Notice that “rare” is no longer a part of “keeping abortion safe & legal”
An article published in 2015 lists 17 times Hillary stood with Planned Parenthood. If Clinton really wanted common ground, this was probably not the best way to go about it.
While many abortion advocates claim to be “reasonable” on abortion, they rarely support any restrictions. Hillary Clinton is no exception. In the Spring of 2016, Hillary Clinton told NBC’s Chuck Todd that she favored late-term abortion restrictions, claiming in the interview that there is “room for reasonable kinds of restrictions after a certain point in time.” But she then went on to leave the door of unrestricted abortion-on-demand wide open, adding, “I think the life – the health of the mother are clear. And those should be included even as one moves on in pregnancy. I’ve had the same position for many years.”
During a 2016 presidential townhall with Bernie Sanders, Clinton told Fox News’ Bret Baier, “I have been on record in favor of a late pregnancy regulation that would have exception for the life and the health of the mother. I object to the recent effort in Congress to pass a law saying after 20 weeks, no exceptions…”
But, in 2015, when asked on Face the Nation if she supported any federal limits on late-term abortion, Clinton (citing false claims that these procedures are performed only for “health” reasons) said she would “hate to see the government interfering with that decision”:
Despite the fact that most Americans are uncomfortable with supporting abortion with their tax dollars, Hillary then called for more — not less — federal funding of Planned Parenthood, a move that would hardly make abortions “rare” — something Live Action News has documented thoroughly.
Making abortion “rare” is not what came to mind when in January of this year, Clinton called for an end to the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal dollars to pay for abortions. At the time, Live Action News contributor Cassy Fiano had this response:
Well, no wonder Planned Parenthood endorsed Clinton. Remember how her husband, Bill Clinton, advocated for abortion to be “safe, legal, and rare” during his presidency? She apparently has abandoned all pretense of that and is instead going for abortion-on-demand— and on the taxpayer’s dime. This, of course, would benefit Planned Parenthood greatly. They already receive half a billion dollars each year in taxpayer funding, but if Clinton manages to repeal the Hyde Amendment, it would surely mean even more money. After all, this is why Planned Parenthood has been fighting to get the Hyde Amendment repealed for so long. If they receive this much money without taxpayer-funded abortions, imagine how much they’ll get if Hyde is repealed. It’s truly a frightening thought.
Calling for more federal funding of Planned Parenthood and rescinding the Hyde Amendment is par for the course for Mrs. Clinton. As far back as the early 1990’s during Bill Clinton’s administration, when Hillary was pushing for nationalized healthcare, she proposed funding for abortions in her healthcare plan.
Unrestricted abortion on demand is the default position of Hillary Clinton as demonstrated on March 12, 2003, when as Senator, Hillary defended the gruesome late-term Partial Birth Abortion procedure (a procedure where a late-term preborn baby is delivered up to the neck before the abortionist uses a suction catheter to remove the child’s brain to collapse the skull and deliver the dead infant):
I value every single life and every single person. But if you can explain to me how the United States government through the criminal law process will be making these decisions without infringing on fundamental rights, without imposing onerous burdens on women and their families, I would be more than happy to listen.
The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 was eventually passed despite Hillary Clinton’s objections and it was signed into law by the President George W. Bush on Nov 5, 2003. (Watch here.)
Hillary Clinton’s view that terminating the life of the preborn child in the womb is not only permissible but is a fundamental right stems from her belief that the child does not have rights. Where have we heard that logic before? In the NBC interview mentioned above, Clinton told Chuck Todd that under the current abortion law, “the unborn person doesn’t have Constitutional rights” while referring to what a mother carries during a pregnancy as “the child.” Clinton later reiterated her belief that the preborn does not have Constitutional rights when she appeared on The View.
Hillary Clinton does not intend to make abortion “rare.” In fact, as she has stated herself, her position on abortion is 100% in line with Roe v. Wade.
If Hillary Clinton becomes our next president, expect something the opposite of “rare” — an increase in abortions and abortion funding, courtesy of the American taxpayer.
