Independent Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is drawing attention for talking about abortion rights during a CNN town hall on climate change. Here’s the context.
On Wednesday night’s CNN Climate Change Town Hall: Bernie Sanders edition, Connecticut schoolteacher named Martha Readyoff asked Sanders about starting a conversation about population growth.
“Human population growth has more than doubled in the past 50 years,” Readyoff said, adding “The planet cannot sustain this growth. I realize this is a poisonous topic for politicians, but it’s crucial to face.”
“Empowering women and educating everyone on the need to curb population growth seems a reasonable campaign to enact,” she said, and asked “Would you be courageous enough to discuss this issue and make it a key feature of a plan to address climate catastrophe?”
“Well, Martha, the answer is yes,” Sanders replied, adding “And the answer has everything to do with the fact that women in the United States of America, by the way, have a right to control their own bodies and make reproductive decisions.”
“And the Mexico City agreement, which denies American aid to those organizations around the world that are — that allow women to have abortions or even get involved in birth control to me is totally absurd,” he continued, referencing the Mexico City policy that gets rescinded by Democratic presidents, and gets revived every time a Republican is
“So I think, especially in poor countries around the world where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of babies, and where they can have the opportunity through birth control to control the number of kids they have, it’s something I very, very strongly support,” he concluded.
The Mexico City policy — also known as the “Global Gag Rule,” was established by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1984, and cuts off funding for any foreign NGO that includes even discussion of abortion in their family planning efforts. The Trump administration greatly expanded the funds that were affected by the policy.
And as the Kaiser Family Foundation notes, the policy adversely affects the availability of contraception, and multiple studies suggest the policy has led to an increase in the number of abortions in the affected regions.
Watch the clip above, via CNN.