Hillary Clinton's abortion grenade

By Michael Gerson
Friday, April 30, 2010

The culture war is breaking out in American foreign policy. And the main culture warrior is not a ranting televangelist but America's secretary of state.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, as host of June's Group of Eight meeting in Ontario, has been preparing an initiative to reduce maternal mortality in poor nations. At first, his government implied that neither contraception nor abortion would be part of the proposal. Under pressure, Harper's foreign affairs minister later clarified that the plan "doesn't deal with abortion" but that "it doesn't exclude contraception."

Last month, during a political controversy in Canada on the issue, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at a news conference in Quebec. "I've worked in this area for many years," she said. "And if we're talking about maternal health, you cannot have maternal health without reproductive health. And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion." the rest

Clinton's grenade did damage beyond Canada. Liberals need to understand -- however strong their pro-choice convictions -- how offensive many conservatives find the global health argument for abortion. It seems like addressing poverty by doing away with the poor; like fighting disease by getting rid of those with diseases.