Hillary Clinton said Friday that the U.S. is comparable to Afghanistan and Sudan when it comes to abortion rights due to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“It’s so shocking to think that in any way we’re related to poor Afghanistan and Sudan,” she said Friday at the Women’s Voices Summit at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. “But as an advanced economy as we allegedly are, on this measure, we unfortunately are rightly put with them.”
Sudan’s Islamist state bans abortion except for when a woman was raped or her life is in danger. Afghanistan’s Islamist state bans abortion except for when the mother’s life in danger.
States across the U.S. are allowed to impose their own rules on abortion, and while some have put in place sharp limits on abortion, many others allow abortion up through a certain number of weeks of pregnancy. Clinton suggested limits on abortion are undemocratic.
“This struggle is between autocracy and democracy from our country to places we can’t even believe we’re being compared to,” Clinton said.
Republicans have argued this year that most European countries ban abortion past 15-weeks, similar o the restrictions many states have imposed. They also noted that under Roe, the U.S. was one of a handful of countries that allowed late-term abortions, along with China and North Korea.
At the summit, Clinton called for a more equitable healthcare system for women. The former secretary of state cited Serena Williams as an example of how Black women are at greater risk to death from childbirth. Williams had secondary pulmonary embolism – a life-threatening blood clot in the lungs – as she gave birth.
“One of the stories ingrained in my mind is that often black women, even women of education and affluence like Serena Williams, come close to dying when she gives birth because people are not paying attention to her,” Clinton said.
Connect with us on our socials: