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Hillary Clinton Abortion Interview: The Unborn Do Not Have Rights

By Zachary Volkert
Published on: 08:12 PST, Apr 3, 2016

Hillary Clinton delivered some comments about abortion in a Sunday morning interview that have stirred up angry reactions from pro-lifers.

While appearing on MSNBC‘s Meet the Press, Chuck Todd prodded Hillary over her personal views on abortion. Earlier this week, Donald Trump stirred up controversy by saying that women who sought abortions should be punished in some way. Clinton flatly rejected his view, and, on Sunday, said that her own views aligned with Roe v. Wade.

“Women have a constitutional right to make these most intimate, difficult and personal decisions based on their conscience, their faith, their family, and their doctor. It is something that really goes to the core of privacy, and I want to maintain that constitutional protection under Roe v. Wade. As you know there is room for reasonable kinds of restrictions after a certain point in time. I think the life and the health of the mother are real, and these should be included even as one moves on in pregnancy. I’ve had the same position for many years.”

Perhaps the most controversial of Hillary’s statements on abortion was prodded by the interviewer. Todd asked Clinton point blank if she thought that the fetuses had the same rights to life as the mothers who were terminating them.

“Well, under our laws, that is not something that exists. The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights.”

While this statement is the one being scrutinized by those who disagree with its general message, Hillary continued to clarify her position further on in the interview. Clinton said that safely bringing a child into the world should be something facilitated by both society and the state with the will of the mother at the forefront.

“Now that doesn’t mean that we don’t do everything we possibly can in the vast majority of instances to you know help a mother who is carrying a child and wants to make sure that child will be healthy, to have appropriate medical support. It doesn’t mean that you don’t do everything possible to try to fulfill your obligations but it does not include sacrificing the woman’s right to make decisions… I’ve traveled all over the world. I’ve seen what happens when government makes these decisions. Whether it was forced sterilization in China or forced childbearing in Romania. I don’t think we should be allowing the government to make decisions that really properly belong to the individual.”

Abortion has been a defining topic of the race to the White House interviews this week. In addition to denouncing Donald’s comments, Hillary also found herself locking horns with Bernie Sanders on the subject. Clinton criticized Bernie’s statement that Trump’s abortion remarks distracted from “a serious discussion about the serious issues facing America.”

“Look, I know Senator Sanders supports a woman’s right to choose, but I also know Planned Parenthood America and NARAL endorsed me because I have led on this issue. I have fought on this issue. And I know, given what’s happening in states across our country, we need a president who is passionate about this.”

Both Sanders and his supporters, including actress Rosario Dawson, claimed that Hillary was being extremely deceptive with these comments. They accused Clinton of trying to subvert Bernie’s message to make him sound like a lukewarm abortion advocate. Sanders himself appeared on Good Morning America for an interview to dispel any doubt about his position on abortion.

[Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images]

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