Former President Jimmy Carter has spoken out against discrimination against women and sex-selective abortions during his commencement address at Liberty University recently.
In his speech, the former president stated that the discrimination against women and girls is the biggest challenge that the world faces today.
"Recently, I've changed my mind about the biggest challenge that the world faces. I think now it's a human rights problem and it is the discrimination against women and girls in the world," Carter said.
The former president went on to cite abortion of female infants as one of the examples of discrimination.
"There are about 160 million girls and women who are not living today. Because their parents, in order to comply with laws of customs to have just male sons, either killed their daughters by strangling them at birth or they have the modern day ability to decide before the baby is born what it's going to be," Carter said. "If the fetus is female, then they abort the child".
The 93-year-old former president also denounced the instances of rape in the U.S. military and the numerous reports of sex-trafficking in the country.
Carter, a longtime Baptist teacher, opposed federal funding for abortions during his term, but he has previously expressed support for legal abortions in cases of rape, incest or when the pregnancy poses a risk to the life of the mother.
"I have had a hard time believing that Jesus, for instance, would approve abortion – unless it was because of rape or incest or if the mother's life was in danger," he said in a HuffPostLive interview.
Carter is the third U.S. president and the first Democrat to deliver the commencement address at Liberty University. President Donald Trump gave a speech at the university last year, while George H.W. Bush spoke at the school in 1990.
Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. noted that he first met Carter when they both attended a private worship service on Trump's inauguration day.
Falwell went on to cite Carter's efforts in helping the poor as one of the reasons he invited the former Democratic president to deliver the commencement address at the Christian university.
In his speech, Carter called on graduates to work together to unite Christians across the world, and expressed dismay at the political divide in the U.S.
Later in the commencement address, Carter joked that the size of the crowd that had come out to hear his speech was much larger than when Donald Trump delivered his address last year.
