Hillary Clinton Bashes President Bush on Opposing Tax-Funded Abortions

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 7, 2005   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Hillary Clinton Bashes President Bush on Opposing Tax-Funded Abortions Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 7, 2005

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) — Though she was lauded for a speech earlier this year calling for "common ground" on abortion, Hillary Clinton is condemning President Bush for not using taxpayer dollars to fund groups that perform or promote abortions in other countries.

Clinton criticized the president in a speech yesterday at a forum at New York University marking the 10th anniversary of the Beijing conference on women.

She said Bush’s refusal to spend tax dollars on funding groups that perform and promote abortions abroad puts women at risk of unsafe abortions. Clinton called the president’s policy "counterproductive" and said the abortion "debate shouldn’t be about ideology, but about facts."

On his first day in office during his first term, President Bush signed an executive order reinstituting the Mexico City Policy, a measure that Presidents Reagan and Bush used previously to block taxpayer funding of groups that perform or promote abortions.

Applauded by pro-life organizations, the Bush policy, which covered the USAID program, was later expanded to include foreign aid funding all State Department programs.

President Bush has repeatedly threatened to veto any legislation with a provision overturning the policy.

During her Sunday speech to a group of UN activists, abortion advocates, and college students, Clinton said it is "unfair for governments and people in developed countries who have access to the full range of reproductive and family health services to deny those to women in other countries around the world,"

Clinton also said too many women "lack the fundamental right to plan their own families."

Hillary’s speech showed she is willing to emphasize her pro-abortion position to the right audience but change her appearance nationally to be less ideologically rigid.

Political analyst Dick Morris, a former advisor for President Bill Clinton, told the New York Sun that Hillary, considered a top 2008 presidential prospect, "will be what she has to be, in front of whom she has to appear, and on the subjects that she must address."

President Clinton scrapped the Mexico City Policy during his eight years in office. President Reagan created it in 1984 and it had been in place until January 1993 when Clinton reversed it.