Part of the American tax-paying experience is knowing that eponymous Amanpour and Company host Christiane Amanpour will use her PBS show to promote Hillary Clinton and abortion. On Monday, she did both, concluding her show by reciting, “As Hillary Clinton famously once said, ‘human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights.’”
In her final monologue to the camera, Amanpour hyped, “And finally, tonight, collective community from the workplace to the ballot box. Two years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the federal right to an abortion, and it's a key issue in the November presidential elections and perhaps also in France, where thousands of women have been demonstrating against the far-right ahead of their snap elections next week, fearing for their reproductive rights and the President Macron's move to enshrine them in the constitution could be undermined.”
National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, often the face of the media’s warnings about far-right French movements, supports abortion. It is just another example that journalists should avoid projecting their own country’s political spectrum onto other countries, but Amanpour rolled right along, “Meanwhile, in Brazil, women were also on the march demanding the end of a bill that would equate abortion after 22 weeks with homicide. As Hillary Clinton famously once said, “human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights.”
Amanpour really does love that line. In December 2022, she welcomed Clinton to the program to look back at when she first made the remarks in 1995. During that interview, Clinton compared Roe’s demise to the Iranian and Taliban regimes as well as Russian soldiers who rape Ukrainian women.
None of those comparisons struck Amanpour as outrageous, instead, she agreed, “But, I mean, how much persuasion can we expect when it comes to our—and I'm speaking as a woman, basic rights. Whether it's in the United States or around the world. As you said, they are human rights. At what point should these be enshrined even in the American law and Constitution even. I mean, I'm probably exaggerating. But it's extraordinary in 2022 that this basic right of women, half the world's population is still at risk.”
If we wanted to be truthful and not neutral, we would say Amanpour is not “probably exaggerating,” she definitely is.
Here is a transcript for the June 24 show:
PBS Amanpour and Company
6/24/2024
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: And finally, tonight, collective community from the workplace to the ballot box. Two years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the federal right to an abortion, and it's a key issue in the November presidential elections and perhaps also in France, where thousands of women have been demonstrating against the far-right ahead of their snap elections next week, fearing for their reproductive rights and the President Macron's move to enshrine them in the constitution could be undermined.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, women were also on the march demanding the end of a bill that would equate abortion after 22 weeks with homicide. As Hillary Clinton famously once said, “human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights.”
