Washington D.C. - Hilary Clinton speaking at a Congressional hearing on the Obama Administration’s foreign policy priorities
Marie Stopes International welcomes US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's statement expressing unequivocal support for reproductive health services and safe abortion in the developing world. The statement came during a Congressional hearing on the Obama Administration’s foreign policy priorities. Under sharp questioning from anti-choice Republican Congressman Chris Smith, Secretary Clinton stated the following:
"…When I think about the suffering that I have seen of women around the world. I’ve been in hospitals in Brazil where half the women were enthusiastically and joyfully greeting their babies and the other half were fighting for their lives against botched abortions. I have been in African countries where 12 and 13 year old girls are bearing children. I have been in Asian countries where the denial of family planning confines women to lives of oppression and hardship… We happen to think that family planning is an important part of women’s health and reproductive health includes access to abortion that I believe should be safe, legal and rare.
"…I’ve spent a lot of my time trying to bring down the rate of abortions and it has been my experience that good family planning and good medical care brings down the rate of abortion. Keeping women and men in ignorance and denied the access to services actually increases the rate of abortion.
"… We are now an Administration that will protect the rights of women, including their rights to reproductive health care."We have provided the
transcript of the question and Secretary of State Clinton’s answer on a separate page.
You can listen to the full hearing on the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs website.The segment included in the transcript commences at 45.01 minutes into the recording.