Clinton Defends Reproductive Health Care in House Testimony

WASHINGTON, April 22, 2009 – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today strongly defended the value of reproductive health care worldwide, including legal abortion, in saving women’s lives and promoting their well-being.

Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Obama administration’s foreign policy priorities, Clinton also called for U.S. ratification of the Treaty for the Rights of Women, known as CEDAW. She expressed “profound disagreement” with Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) in his opposition to legal abortion.

“I’ve been in hospitals in Brazil where half the women were enthusiastically and joyfully greeting new babies and the other half were fighting for their lives against botched abortions,” Clinton said. “I’ve been in African countries where 12- and 13-year-old girls are bearing children.”

Clinton noted that “good family planning and good medical care bring down the rate of abortion.” She called family planning “an important part of women’s health,” adding firmly that “reproductive health includes access to abortion, that I believe should be safe, legal and rare.”

Smith and other Republican committee members urged Clinton to reconsider the new administration’s decision to restore funding to UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, on grounds the agency supports coercive abortions and sterilizations in China. Clinton noted she had spoken out strongly against forced abortions in China in 1995 as First Lady, and reiterated that position in her current post. “This is a bad policy from any angle you look at it,” she said.

Asked about CEDAW, she said the administration regarded it as a priority and “hopes that this can be the year that we would finally ratify this convention that really does recognize and support the rights of women.” She added, “We need to move on this.”

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