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Posted on 02/27/2010 3:24:26 PM PST by NYer
WASHINGTON, DC, February 26, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing yesterday on the fiscal year 2011 international affairs budget, Congressman Chris Smith confronted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with a speech in which he blasted the administration's support for abortion around the world. Smith stated that this promotes violence against "the most persecuted and at risk minority in the world" - the unborn child.
Smith, co-chairman of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, expressed disappointment that "unplanned pregnancy" in the Global Health Initiative Consultation Document "seems to be relegated to the status of a disease — juxtaposed between HIV and tropical disease."
"Pregnancy is not a disease. The child in the womb is neither a tumor nor a parasite to be destroyed," Smith told the former First Lady.
"I respectfully ask that the administration consider that for many of us, all abortion — legal or illegal — is violence against children and poses significant, often underappreciated risks to women and even to children later born to post-abortive women," said Smith.
"Madame Secretary, the term ‘safe abortion’ is the ultimate oxymoron," he continued. "Child dismemberment, forced premature explosion from the womb by chemicals like misoprostol, deliberate child starvation by RU486, can never, ever be construed to be benign, compassionate or safe. UN Millennium Development Goal #4 seeks to reduce child mortality.
"Abortion is child mortality."
The congressman went on to recite a litany of women’s health risks linked to abortion, including psychological harm such as depression and thoughts of suicide, as well as the 30-40% rise in breast cancer risk cited by at least 28 studies. Smith pointed out the plethora of health risks for a post-abortive woman's subsequent children, including future premature birth, which at least 113 studies have shown to have a strong association with previous abortion.
Smith also criticized pro-abortion forces influencing the United Nations to expand the killing of the unborn under the heading of lowering maternal mortality rates. "Today, as never before, the largely preventable tragedy of maternal mortality is being exploited to promote unfettered access to abortion on demand," he said.
Finally, Smith confronted Clinton with the story of Wujan, a Chinese woman who testified to the Lantos Human Rights Commission last November about how the government forcibly aborted her unborn child. Wujan told the panel of the conditions where she was taken for the procedure: “The room was full of moms who had just gone through a forced abortion. Some moms were crying. Some moms were mourning. Some moms were screaming. And one mom was rolling on the floor with unbearable pain.”
"Then Wuijan said it was her turn, and through her tears she described what she called her 'journey in hell,'" said Smith. "Silence in the face of massive crimes against women in China — women like Wuijan — shouldn’t be an option."
Clinton did not give a response to Smith's statements.
Before her first journey to China as Secretary of State last year, Clinton drew ire from human rights groups by telling reporters that addressing the country's crimes against human rights would not top her agenda.
Ironically, in 2005, Clinton herself issued a letter to President Bush urging him to confront the communist country on its draconian policies, including forced abortion.
"Since first introduced in 1979, China's one-child policy has evoked strong concern over human rights abuses," she wrote. "These abuses have reportedly included denial of social benefits, fines, detention, destruction of property, forced abortion and forced sterilization." Clinton noted that as a participant in the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 she "heard first hand about these practices and spoke against them."
In April of last year, Clinton admitted to the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the Obama administration would work to dismantle pro-life legislation worldwide. The administration's definition of "reproductive health" includes abortion, she said, and declared that, "We are now an administration that will protect the rights of women, including their rights to reproductive health care."
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Human Rights Panel Urges Obama to Confront China's Forced Abortion Policy
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/nov/09111610.html
Human Rights Advocates Angered at Clinton Dismissal of China's Human-Rights Abuses
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09030210.html
Hilary Clinton Urges President Bush to Discuss Forced Abortion on China Trip
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/nov/05111601.html
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
I live in Chris Smith’s district. He’s a good man.
I know him--and I agree--he is a great man.
Sounds like it, we need more like him.
Exit 82? Off the GSP? Exit 91. Howdy neighbor!
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Hillary Clinton is an evil, soul-less bitch. The fact she didn’t reply to Rep. Smith is because she new there is no decent reply.
He better watch out if he remember what Arkancide is.
Nah. We don’t sweat country bumpkins here in Jersey. Let ‘em try.
Oh you ****&!!! I’m gonna have nightmares! ARRRRGGGG!!!(just kidding) Yes. In Hillary’s case exceptions should have been made. GOD THIS WOMAN IS UGLY!!!
Exit 91? How do you cope with the traffic? LOL!
I used to live in Toms River when I joined FR in ‘98, hence my screenname.
I live in southern Delaware now—had to escape the madness and high taxes in NJ. Go back to visit often but I don’t miss the traffic. Pace of life is slower and the people wave at you—with all five fingers!
I’m hopeful that Gov. Christie will do a good job for NJ—it needs it!
Thanks, we do need all the help we can get here in the Garden State. The traffic is a pain but in the morning when I go to work I go north on the Parkway and at night I come home on RT. 34 south and over to Rt.70. I live in Brick.
WOW! I would have loved to have been in the room for that confrontation and to have seen Hillary’s face. I will be watching this Congressman. I didn’t know about him before, and he has just now topped my list of the “good guys”.
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