Women’s rights are under attack around the world, said Hillary Clinton, at the Women in the World Summit in New York this week.
Speaking to Nicholas Kristof of New York Times, at Tina Brown’s Women in the World Summit, Clinton said: “The targeting of women — which is what is going on — is absolutely beyond any political agenda. There is something else happening here.
“So the global gag rule, that bounces back and forth between Republican and Democrats, but the way they wrote it this time — not like Bush did, not like Reagan did — this time would be to remove all aid if there is some kind of alleged breach.
“Because you provide family planning services, but somebody says to a woman desperate to get an abortion because she has been told she will die if she bears another child so then you try to help her and you lose everything.”
“And then you follow that with the UN population fund … The impact that those dollars have is saving women and children’s lives and helping women have a better shot at a future… This is not just the right and moral position for the United States to take; this in our national security interest. The more we support women, the more we support democracy … Women’s issues are national security issues around the world.”
During her interview at the Women in World Summit she also revealed her plans to mentor young women on how to get into politics and public service.
“I’m going to spend a lot of my time encouraging young people, particularly young women, to go into politics, to go into public service.”
“I believe that not only is it a worthy and very satisfying way to contribute, make a living, learn more,” she continued. “But we really need you. And we need more young people, and we particularly need more young women.”
She added: “I’m going to work with some of the organizations that are springing up, I’m going to work with those that have been around for a while, to see how I can reach out, recruit, help train, mentor, advise, people to do this.”
