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Obama delivering his speech to the first-ever White House Summit on the United State of Women.

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 20, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – President Barack Obama told the first-ever White House Summit on the United State of Women last week that the nations of the world must give women “control over their own bodies” – a phrase typically used by abortion activists to denote abortion-on-demand and, less frequently, contraception – if they are to fulfill their full “potential.”

During the speech the president, in addition to promoting equal pay, paid maternity leave, and other standard feminist policies, pushed transgenderism, his controversial HHS birth control mandate, and same-sex “marriage.”

“Even as we make progress at home, we look abroad and we know that any country that oppresses half the population — that doesn’t let them go to school or work, and does not give them control over their own bodies — that’s a society that will not work over the long term,” the president told the summit, which included a who's-who of prominent abortion lobbyists, population control advocates, and transgender activists. “It will not reach its potential.”

The statement came moments after the president observed, “We’ve been having a lot of babies, I’ve noticed, in the White House – which I’m happy about.”

“I love babies,” Obama continued. “They bring them into the Oval Office and they make me feel good,” he said, inspiring laughter from the audience.

The president noted that his oldest daughter, Malia, “is graduating [high school] at this extraordinary time for women in America.” 

In the year he was born, 1961, “the pill was still illegal in some states,” said Obama. “And today, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, birth control is free.”

“In the old days, women actually needed a husband to open a credit card,” he added. “Today, more women are choosing to be single — and all Americans are able to marry whoever they love.” 

He also noted that feminist activists should be open to redefining the term “woman.”  To complete the revolution, women need to support a different definition of gender than the one that has informed their activism to date, he said.

“If we are going to truly change our policies and our politics, then we’re also going to have to change…the way we see ourselves,” Obama said. “We’re still boxed in by stereotypes about how men and women should behave.”

“As the great Shirley Chisholm once said, 'The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begin when the doctor says, ‘It’s a girl,’” he said. “And that has consequences for all of us, whether we’re men or women, black, white, gay, straight, transgender or otherwise.” 

He saluted “modern-day heroes like Nancy Pelosi, or Sonia Sotomayor, or Billie Jean King, or Laverne Cox, or Sheryl Sandberg, or Oprah Winfrey, or Mikaila Ulmer, or Michelle Obama,” many of whom were in attendance.

Speakers and presenters at the White House summit included:

  • Cecile Richards, CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America;

  • Raegan McDonald-Mosley, the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood;

  • Grecia Magdaleno of Planned Parenthood Federation of America;

  • Gloria Steinem;

  • Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation;

  • Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health;

  • Miriam Yeung, the head of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. Yeung recently testified against a bill to ban race- and sex-selection abortions, calling Rep. Trent Franks' bill “racist” and “duplicitous”;

  • Shonda Rimes, a Hollywood producer known for the heavily sexual content of her shows. The program “Scandal” recently featured a leading female character having an abortion as “Silent Night” played in the background;

  • Melissa Harris-Perry, the former MSNBC host, who once said, “We have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.”

  • Debra Messing, the former star of “Will and Grace,” was invited in her capacity as a global spokeswoman for Population Services International (PSI), which promotes “safe abortion” around the world;

  • Chernor Bah, an associate at the Population Council;

  • Cherno Biko, the co-founder of Black Trans Lives Matter;

  • Valerie Jarrett, President Obama's most intimate adviser;

  • Neera Tanden, the CEO of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank created with funding from George Soros that Nation magazine described as “a White House staff in readiness for President Hillary Clinton”;

  • Andrea Ritchie, a Soros Justice Fellow;

  • Dina Habib Powell of Goldman Sachs;

  • Thomas Perez, Obama's Secretary of Labor, who has boasted of prosecuting pro-life advocates;

  • Mary Kay Henry, the president of the Service Employees Industrial Union (SEIU); and

  • Elizabeth Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO.

“I may be a little grayer than I was eight years ago, but this is what a feminist looks like,” Obama said, repeating a popular feminist meme