Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., did U.N. pro-lifers a huge favor yesterday.

At a congressional hearing, the Catholic congressmen induced Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to admit that the phrase “reproductive health” is a euphemism the international abortion lobby uses to promote access to abortion.

The international abortion lobby constantly seeks to introduce the terms “reproductive health” and “reproductive rights” into U.N. documents when these documents are negotiated by the U.N.’s member states. But pro-abortion U.N. delegations and pro-abortion U.N. agencies like the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) usually refuse to admit these terms refer to abortion access and abortion access when such international negotiations are being conducted.

Speaking yesterday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in response to questions put by Smith and Fortenberry, Clinton stated “reproductive health includes access to abortion that I believe should be safe, legal and rare.”

And, Clinton declared, “We are now an administration that will protect the rights of women, including their rights to reproductive health care.”

Register correspondent Joan Frawley Desmond spells out in detail the significance of Clinton’s admission in an entry at her blog, The Cathoholic.

“For more than a decade, Western European nations and NGOs with a feminist bent have pressed for the inclusion of ‘reproductive rights’ and ‘reproductive health’ into broader international documents establishing benchmarks for universal political, economic and social rights,” Frawley writes.

“Pro-life NGOs and nations have resisted this offensive, arguing that language like ‘reproductive health’ is a codeword for abortion rights. They have warned that signatory nations with laws opposing abortion could be forced to legalize abortion or risk censure or even financial penalties, such as cuts in foreign aid. Feminists have scorned these concerns, arguing that pro-lifers merely seek to deny poor women basic rights.

“Here is a link to the UNFPA website that provides a typically benign definition of ‘reproduction health’ — with no mention of abortion.

‘Today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton essentially confirmed what pro-lifers have argued for years.”

During a subsequent interview with Frawley that she conducted on behalf of the Register, Smith said this about Clinton’s comments to the House Foreign Affairs Committee:

“They’ve been stealthy about promoting abortion … and emphasize other issues on which people can agree. Now this reveals unambiguously that the U.S. definition of reproductive health includes abortion.”

As a result of Clinton’s unexpected candor, pro-life and pro-family delegations and advocates working at the U.N. will now be able to point out that the United States is seeking to promote abortion whenever the U.S. delegation tries to introduce “reproductive health” language into a U.N. document, or supports the language when another pro-abortion delegation tries to do so.

That should immeasurably strengthen the resolve of pro-life delegations from predominantly Catholic countries, and from other pro-life nations, to reject the inclusion of such stealth language in U.N. documents in order to push the abortion agenda.

Kudos to Reps. Smith and Fortenberry for their good work in the cause of defending unborn human life!