Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders suggested that taxpayers should fund abortions in poor countries during a CNN town hall debate on Wednesday night in response to whether he supports population control.
Martha Readyoff, identified by CNN as a teacher, said to Sanders: “Human population growth has more than doubled in the last 50 years, the planet cannot sustain this growth.”
“Empowering women, and educating everyone on the need to curb population growth seems a reasonable campaign to enact,” Readyoff continued. “Would you be courageous enough to discuss this issue and make it a key feature of a plan to address climate catastrophe.”
“The answer’s ‘yes,'” Bernie responded. “Women in the United States of Americas, 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 allow women to have abortions or even get involved in birth control — to me is totally absurd,” Sanders continued. “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 strongly support.”
WATCH: