Vice President Joe Biden made headlines with his controversial comments regarding China’s one-child policy during a Sunday appearance at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. The policy restricts couples to having only one child in an effort to control population growth.
Biden spoke on the U.S. debt and then took a question about how America can reduce deficits and strengthen the financial system. Biden’s answer included an off-the-cuff remark as he seemingly accepted China’s one child policy which has resulted in mass abortions and sterilizations for violators.
The vice president spoke of his concerns of funding for future generations and mentioned the one-child policy:
“But as I was talking to some of your leaders, you share a similar concern here in China. You have no safety net. Your policy has been one which I fully understand – I’m not second-guessing – of one child per family. The result being that you’re in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable.”
“So hopefully we can act in a way on a problem that’s much less severe than yours, and maybe we can learn together from how we can do that,” added Biden.
Many pro-life advocates have condemned Biden’s statement, including GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
In a released statement, Romney lashed out against Biden’s remarks:
“China’s one-child policy is gruesome and barbaric. Vice President Biden’s acquiescence to such a policy should shock the conscience of every American.”
“Instead of condoning the policy, Vice President Biden should have condemned it in the strongest possible terms. There can be no defense of a government that engages in compulsory sterilization and forced abortions in the name of population control.”
According to a nationwide Gallup poll of registered voters released Monday, if the election were held today Romney would defeat Obama 48 to 46 percent.
Romney isn’t the only one who was outraged at the VP’s remarks. Penny Nance, the president and CEO of Concerned Women for America, said, “Vice President Biden’s approval of China’s one-child policy, which uses forced abortion to enforce the law, crosses the lines of ignorant and wrong.”
“Then to suggest that the United States should learn from China’s policy, like forcing its citizens to have only one child, to help manage debt, is an insult to the basic American values of life and liberty,” Nance said.
CWA also wanted to know if Biden’s position is the official Administration’s stance on the “barbaric and brutal one-child policy in China.”
Eric Scheidler, executive director of Prolife Action League, said he recoiled in “horror” at the VP’s remarks.
“I don’t know how to reconcile common decency and the American principal of equal rights of all men and women with Joe Biden’s approval of this horrific policy in China of limiting parents to one child.”
Scheidler went on to lament how Biden made “a big deal” about his Catholic faith during the 2008 election.
“Nothing can be more contrary to Christianity, Catholicism in particular. This kind of endorsement is wrong. He shouldn’t claim to be a Catholic if he is going to support policies that are harming the people of China.”
Speaker of the House John Boehner urged the White House to provide "a correction or clarification" to Biden's comments, according to The Associated Press.
The White House has not yet released a statement.
