Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, has suggested he strongly supports the idea of Americans paying for women in third world countries to kill their unborn children in an effort to curb population growth and address climate change.

During CNN’s climate town hall, an audience member addressed the Senator saying: “Human population growth has doubled in the past fifty years. The planet cannot sustain this growth. I realise this is a poisonous topic for politicians, but it’s crucial to face.

“Empowering women and educating everyone on the need to curb population growth seems a reasonable campaign to enact. Would you be courageous enough to discuss this issue and make it a key feature of a plan to address climate catastrophe.”

Sanders responded: “Well, Martha, the answers yes. And the answer has everything to do with the fact that women in the United States of America, 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 organisations around the world that allow women to have abortions or even get involved in birth control, to me, is totally absurd.

“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. Something I very, very strongly support.”

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