Praising the organization that endorsed her after during her unsuccessful bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton said that “the overarching mission of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the cause of reproductive freedom that you continue to advance today is as relevant in our world now as it was a hundred years ago.”
“Yet,” she continued, “we know that Margaret Sanger's work here in the United States and certainly across our globe is not done. Here at home, there are still too many women who are denied their rights because of income, because of opposition, because of attitudes that they harbor. But around the world, too many women are denied even the opportunity to know about how to plan and space their families. They're denied the power to do anything about the most intimate of decisions.”
“I want to assure you that reproductive rights and the umbrella issue of women's rights and empowerment will be a key to the foreign policy of this Administration,” she assured as the crowd applauded.
“I believe that women's rights and empowerment is an indispensible ingredient of smart power and therefore is integrated into our renewed emphasis on diplomacy and development… and I was very proud when President Obama repealed the Mexico City policy,” Clinton said, eliciting thunderous applause.
“As a result, nongovernmental organizations overseas can once again use U.S. funding to provide the full range of family planning services so that women and their families can get access to the healthcare that they need,” she said.
Clinton officially announced that the United States will once again fund family planning, including abortion as an option, through the United Nations. “We are going to fund a contribution of $50 million this fiscal year. That's a 130 percent increase over our last contribution, which was made in 2001.” “Congress has also approved the Administration's request for $545 million in bilateral assistance for family planning and reproductive health programs this year,” she informed the audience.