Bill and Hillary Clinton remained seated during a five-minute standing ovation for Mother Teresa during a National Prayer Breakfast in 1994 as a protest to her views on abortion, the chairwoman of the world's largest network of pro-life pregnancy help writes in The Federalist.
"The Clintons were sending a message of dissent loud and clear to the woman now officially canonized a saint in the Catholic Church for her 'heroic virtue,''' says Peggy Hartshorn, who heads Heartbeat International.
"The Clintons' seated dissent had everything to do with Mother Teresa's courageous stand for the sanctity of life, which echoed her earlier comments in her 1979 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech …
"[They] have not learned that lesson from Mother Teresa. In fact, Hillary's Democrats promote the most rabidly pro-abortion platform our nation has ever seen."
Hartshorn compared the Clintons' protest to that of Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49er quarterback who refused to stand during the National Anthem as a protest against police violence against African Americans.
"It's hard to overstate the symbolic power of sitting down. Today, a football player's refusal to stand for the National Anthem has garnered headline upon headline. Twenty-two years ago, a seated couple protested one of the world's most beloved figures," she said.
On Sunday, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was canonized as a Catholic saint by Pope Francis.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.