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NEW YORK, March 26, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The issue of sex-selective abortion is often raised by pro-life speakers, at pro-life rallies, and on pro-life news sites. It is seldom discussed on national late-night television by pro-abortion presidents.

But Tuesday night, former president Jimmy Carter called the issue “the worst human rights abuse on earth” on the Late Show with David Letterman.

The man from Plains told Letterman that “160 million girls are now missing from the face of the earth, because they were murdered at birth by their parents or either selectively aborted when their parents find out that the fetus is a girl. So, that many people are missing, and they're all girls who are missing.”

Carter called the toll sex-selective abortion has taken “the worst statistic that I know.”

Indeed, the number may be an underestimate. The United Nations has indicated the number of girls selectively aborted due to their sex may number as many as 200 million.

When asked for country-by-country numbers, Carter noted 50 million girls were already missing in China by 1997, because of China's repressive one-child policy. “The Chinese government had mandated one-is-best, two-is-most,” he said.

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His remarks stand in contrast to First Lady Michelle Obama, who is concluding her tour of China without having condemned the nation's coercive population control regime.

“India has had the same problem with [gendercide], and in many other countries as well,” Carter continued. One Indian family, for instance, killed 11 newborn girls hoping for a boy.

The UK Independent newspaper has concluded that even Great Britain is missing between 1,400 and 4,700 girls due to sex-selective abortions.

Carter noted the effects of the often-pronounced gender imbalances in Asia. “In China and India and South Korea and some other countries, young men can't find brides to marry, so they buy brides and that increases the amount of slavery that exists on earth.”

That, too, is not merely a problem overseas. Some 100,000 girls in the United States are sold into sexual slavery every year, Carter said.

Letterman called the issue “unfathomable.”

The 39th president appeared on the CBS entertainment program to promote his new book A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power. The book repeats his longstanding contention that the Catholic and conservative evangelical ban on female clergy leads to wife battery and the purported gender pay gap. In his 2005 book Our Endangered Values Carter revealed that he confronted the late Pope John Paul II about the fact that the Catholic Church does not allow women to serve as priests. He also implied that the Southern Baptist Convention's belief in traditional sexual roles is in some way responsible for Islamic female genital mutilation in Africa.

“I was hoping you'd be a little funnier,” Letterman joked at the end of their segment.

In other parts of the interview, Carter, whose presidency is remembered for its economic malaise and foreign policy setbacks, suggested implementing a carbon tax and moving toward alternative energy.

As president, Carter formally recognized the People's Republic of China “as the sole legal government of China” on January 1, 1979.

Transcript:

Letterman: Things are contained in this book that I was completely ignorant about and am stunned by what I know of what is covered here. What, what is the source of this, the abuse of women, essential slavery, human trafficking, on and on?

Carter: Well, it's the worst human rights abuse on earth and it's basically unaddressed. I'll start with the worst statistic that I know and that is that 160 million girls are now missing from the face of the earth because they were murdered at birth by their parents or either selectively aborted when their parents find out that the fetus is a girl. So, that many people are missing and they're all girls who are missing.

Letterman: And how many countries are represented in this?

Carter: A good many countries are. I don't know how many parents in America would rather have a boy than a girl, that they're very poor and feel they can't support children. But in about 15 years ago there was an accurate assessment in China and 50 million were already missing there because the Chinese government had mandated one-is-best, two-is-most, and then India has had the same problem with them, and in many other countries as well. So now, for instance in China and India and South Korea and some other countries, young men can't find brides to marry, so they buy brides and that increases the amount of slavery that exists on earth.

The slave trade now is much greater than it ever was in the 19th century. It amounts to about $32 billion a year and the United States State Department is required by law now to assess the slavery market and they estimate that 800,000 slaves are sold across international borders every year. And 80 percent of those slaves sold are young girls who are going, who are being sold into the sex slave, slavery. And this occurs, about 100,000 of them are in the United States, not sold across international borders. Atlanta is a key of the human trafficking or slavery trade.