Bill Clinton Presidential Papers Suggest Hillary Made Abortion Decisions

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 27, 2006   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 27
, 2006

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — New papers obtained from the Clinton Presidential Library show that former First Lady Hillary Clinton apparently was a key decision-maker during Bill Clinton’s presidency on the issue of abortion.

The papers, released by a judicial watchdog group, come as Clinton is attempting to moderate her image on the issue in advance of a possible 2008 presidential campaign.

Judicial Watch, a public interest group, announced the release of a special report based on the papers.

The group said its research into papers at the archive details the Clintons’ "strong support – both politically and ideologically – for attacking the pro-life movement and aggressively expanding the ‘culture of death,’ especially with public funding.”

Judicial Watch’s special report focuses on three particular documents that provide evidence that Hillary Clinton was a key player in crafting the Clinton administration’s abortion policies. They also show that decisions on abortion policy were made for political gain.

The Clinton Archives contains a May 1993 memo from Domestic Policy Council staffer Bill Galston to President Bill Clinton, which includes a two-page discussion of the Hyde Amendment, weighing legislative tactics, public opinion and political strategy.

It ends with President Bill Clinton’s handwritten question, “What does Hillary think?” next to the “decision” section of the memo.

Galston was so concerned about the "highly sensitive" nature of the abortion memo that he treated it as a classified document and restricted circulation of the memo to only President Clinton, Vice President Gore and White House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty, the group said.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said, “These new documents show that the Clinton White House treated abortion with corrupt cynicism and that Hillary Clinton was at the center of decision-making on the issue.”

The Clinton archives also contain examples of what Judicial Watch calls anti-Catholic bias on the abortion issue.

They contain an April 1, 1993 letter from Takey Crist, MD, the director of the Crist Clinic for Women abortion business in Jacksonville, North Carolina, to George Stephanopoulos as White House Communications Director. The Crist letter attacks Representative Hyde and the Catholic Church for defending all innocent human life.

“Critics who say that paying for federally financed abortions would put taxpayers into the ‘grisly business’ of abortion are using the same scare tactics that were used back in 1976 and 1977 by Henry Hyde who has been financed and paid off by the Catholic church for years," the letter claims.

The Crist letter encloses a paper trumpeting the "cost effectiveness" and "benefits" of "elective therapeutic abortions."

Stephanopoulos apparently thought the paper was important enough to send copies to White House senior staff.

"Of all the unsolicited constituent correspondence to the Clinton White House on the subject of abortion, these are the comments circulated, considered and archived by Hillary’s abortion working group as the most politically and historically relevant," the group said in its analysis.

“This special report provides important behind-the-scenes details regarding the creation and execution of the Clinton administration’s radical pro-abortion agenda,” Fitton concluded.

Related web sites:
Judicial Watch – https://www.judicialwatch.org