Hillary Clinton Opposes Sex-Selection Abortions, Other Abortion Advocates Silent
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 25, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently told the New York Times that she opposes sex-selection abortions and is working to do more the combat them. One pro-life advocate is inviting her to support legislation in Congress to accomplish that and notes how her colleagues aren’t as vocal.
In an interview with the New York Times published on Sunday, Clinton acknowledges the problems of sex-selection abortions in some Asian nations.
"Obviously, there’s work to be done in both India and China, because the infanticide rate of girl babies is still overwhelmingly high," she says.
"Unfortunately, with technology, parents are able to use sonograms to determine the sex of a baby, and to abort girl children simply because they’d rather have a boy. And those are deeply set attitudes," Clinton continues.
She adds she is seeing “openness and commitment” by the governments of India and China in confronting these practices.
Marie Smith, the director of the Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues, points out the contradiction between Clinton’s comments and those of other abortion advocates.
“Tragically, many pro-abortionists cling to the mantra ‘Every child a wanted child’ and cannot even condemn abortion based on sex selection," she told LifeNews.com last week.
"Sex-selective abortion presents radical feminists with their greatest dilemma—either value the lives of their youngest ‘sisters’ in the womb or support a woman’s decision to abort her daughter simply because she wants to paint the nursery blue not pink," she said.
Jill Stanek, a pro-life blogger, also noted the contradiction.
"This is problematic for hardcore pro-aborts because Hillary is admitting pro-born [children] are distinct and separate human beings and also that some abortions are wrong," she says.
Stanek notes that no pro-abortion blog web sites appear to be highlighting or supporting Clinton’s comments. which she says could be labeled "traitorism" in the ranks of the abortion advocates.
Smith has some skepticism about Clinton’s condemnation of sex-selection abortions — nothing that she told Congress in April that “reproductive health includes access to abortion.”
Yet, she called the comments in the Times interview "laudable" and said "Clinton acknowledges that the deadly practices of sex-selective abortion and infanticide target the lives of girl babies and need to be stopped."
Smith invited Clinton to go further and to endorse Congressional legislation that would ban the practice in the United States.
“We hope that Secretary Clinton will not only encourage governments overseas and the United Nations to end the deadly practice of sex-selective abortion but will examine the increasing use of sex-selection in the U.S.," she said. "New technology allows a woman to use an at-home kit as early as six weeks to find out the sex of her unborn child.”
Representative Trent Franks, out of concern with the growing prevalence of sex-selective and race-selective abortion in the United States, has introduced H.R. 1822 — the Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2009.
"This legislation would prohibit discrimination against the unborn on the basis of sex or race," Smith says.
She concludes: "Secretary Clinton would be advised to take a closer look at this legislation and consider other policy initiatives to address these growing problems in the U.S. Perhaps the Obama administration can approach these issues with the same openness and commitment Secretary Clinton believes the governments of India and China are showing."
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