On Newshour Wednesday night, former President Jimmy Carter told Judy Woodruff that "the crimes against women and girls exceed almost anything that I have known in my lifetime as far as human rights abuses."
Carter was on the show to discuss his new book A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power, which he has called the "most important" of the 28 books he has published. With Woodruff, Carter discussed slavery and human trafficking around the world, genital mutilation, equal pay and sexual assault on campuses and in the military in the United States.
When Woodruff asked Carter why women's rights was the issue he wanted to focus on the most, he said:
...this, to me, is a thing that I might do in the remaining years of my life that be — would bear the richest dividends, if I can just get the world aroused to the actual facts about what's happening to women and girls and get us to act in concert. In every crime against females that's mentioned in this book, I have got specific recommendations on what we can do, particularly here in the United States.
"The United States is very culpable," Carter went on to say, adding that he "will continue" this work for the rest of his life through the Carter Center, the non-profit human rights organization he founded with his wife, former First Lady Rosalyn Carter.
DISCUSSION
I really love Jimmy Carter. He's just such a thoroughly decent, genuine human being. His statement about leaving the Southern Baptist Convention because of the sexism in its theology was wonderfully inspiring. Also, if you go to his childhood home, there is a store that sells peanut butter ice cream, as if you didn't love him enough already.