When asked about her thoughts on abortion Tuesday morning, Hillary Clinton may have surprised some by taking the stance that being “pro-life” and a feminist are not mutually exclusive.
During an appearance on ABC’s “The View,” co-host Candace Cameron-Bure asked Clinton if she thinks it’s possible to be a feminist while identifying as “pro-life.”
“Yes I do, absolutely,” Clinton said.
“They’re not mutually exclusive?” Cameron-Bure asked.
“No, absolutely,” she said. “Look, I’ve been, and I’m sure that Whoopi and Joy have been, we’ve been in these conversations now for, what, 40-plus years, right? And I respect the opinions and beliefs of every woman.”
“The reason why being pro-choice is the right way to go is because it is a choice and hopefully a choice that is rooted in the thoughtfulness and the care that the women bring to this decision,” she continued. “So, of course you can be a feminist and pro-life.”
These comments come after Clinton referred to a fetus in an interview as an unborn “person,” a word choice that angered some abortion rights activists.
“The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights,” she said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “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.”
Considering that “pro-life” in all practicality means “pro-birth” I have a hard time understanding such a position.
I wish we could stop talking about this as abortion rights. This is about right to privacy period!!!
No, Hillary. It’s not a “person”.
The unborn person?! Could she dog-whistle any more loudly to the anti-choice crowd?
This strikes me of a piece with her remark about the Reagans´ helping America understand AIDS, i.e., that it´s a calculated bit of triangulation that her campaign thinks has a bigger upside than the incredulousness and any backlash that it will invoke in her supporters.
I agree with Clinton. Consider the word: “Choice.”
That means that it’s up to a woman to make choices about her reproductive life. She can choose to have as many children as her fertility and timely intercourse allow, or employ birth control (or even abstinence) to have no children, or choose to support abortion rights and perhaps even choose one or more abortions for herself, or choose to eschew abortion rights for herself and for all women.
I happen to support full abortion rights for all women. But that’s my choice. Other women may choose otherwise, and urge others to never abort under any circumstances. That’s their choice. The only problem I have is when any woman (or man) tries to force their beliefs on others.