Hillary Clinton and Mother Teresa discuss abortion

By Tom Quiner

Saint Teresa of Calcutta

I have brought together two famous women to discuss, in their own words, the biggest issue of the past generation: human abortion.

Mother Teresa is about to be canonized as the next saint in the Roman Catholic Church, and Hillary Clinton, based on current polling, is poised to become the next president of the United States.

The subject is abortion. Ms. Clinton, would you begin:

Hillary Clinton

HILLARY: Far too many women are denied access to reproductive health care (aka. abortion) and safe childbirth, and laws don’t count for much if they’re not enforced.

Well, that’s to the point. Your reaction, St. Teresa of Calcutta …

MOTHER TERESA: That special power of loving that belongs to a woman is seen most clearly when she becomes a mother.

Ms. Clinton, how do you respond to a comment like that in light of your commitment to spreading abortion to all corners of the earth?

HILLARY: Deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed. When it comes to women’s health, there are two kinds of experts: women and their doctors. True 40+ years ago, true today.

But doesn’t God factor into this conversation? Mother?

MOTHER TERESA: Motherhood is the gift of God to women. How grateful we must be to God for this wonderful gift that brings such joy to the whole world, women and men alike! Yet we can destroy this gift of motherhood, especially by the evil of abortion, but also by thinking that other things like jobs or positions are more important than loving, than giving oneself to others. No job, no plans, no possessions, no idea of “freedom” can take the place of love. So anything that destroys God’s gift of motherhood destroys His most precious gift to women– the ability to love as a woman.

Ms. Clinton, do you consider Mother Teresa’s words extreme?

HILLARY: Now, extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups, we expect that from people who don’t want to live in the modern world, but it’s a little hard to take from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States.

But I’m not asking about Republicans, I’m asking for your reaction to this Saint’s comments that happen to mirror the views of the Republican Party. Do you consider Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta to be an extremist?

HILLARY: 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 rooted in the thoughtfulness and care that women bring to this decision. So of course you can be a feminist and be pro-life.

Mother Teresa, why do I get the feeling that a comment like that won’t sit to well with you?

MOTHER TERESA: It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.

America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men.

It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships.

It has aggravated the derogation of the father’s role in an increasingly fatherless society.

It has portrayed the greatest of gifts ~ a child ~ as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience.

It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters.

And in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexual partners.

Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being’s entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign.”

Ms. Clinton, isn’t a right to life a fundamental right, as Mother Teresa, as well as our Founding Fathers, suggest?

HILLARY: I think abortion should remain legal, but it needs to be safe and rare. And I have spent many years now, as a private citizen, as first lady, and … as senator, trying to make it rare, trying to create the conditions where women had other choices.

I have supported adoption, foster care. I helped to create the campaign against teenage pregnancy, which fulfilled our original goal 10 years ago of reducing teenage pregnancies by about a third. And I am committed to do even more.

Mother Teresa, you have the final word …

MOTHER TERESA: Please don’t kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child.

From our children’s home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3000 children from abortion. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents and have grown up so full of love and joy.

[This mock conversation used exact quotes from each participant’s public comments in the past. It was originally published on this blog on September 2nd, 2016.]