Washington (CNN) Education Secretary Betsy DeVos compared efforts to outlaw abortion to emancipation campaigns before the Civil War during remarks she made at the Museum of the Bible in Washington on Wednesday.

In her comments, which were first reported by the Colorado Times Recorder , DeVos likened anti-abortion activists to President Abraham Lincoln.

"(Lincoln) too contended with the pro-choice arguments of his day. They suggested that a state's choice to be slave or to be free had no moral question in it," she said, according to a copy of her prepared comments the Education Department provided to CNN.

"Well, President Lincoln reminded those pro-choicers that is a vast portion of the American people that do not look upon that matter as being this very little thing. They look upon it as a vast moral evil," DeVos continued.

"There are many in the pro-life movement who heroically work to make abortion unconstitutional," she added. "Tonight, let's talk about making it unthinkable."

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