Trump Opposes Most Abortions, Undecided on Embryonic Research

Politics   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 25, 2011   |   12:36PM   |   Des Moines, IA

As businessman Donald Trump appears to inch closer to a potential Republican presidential bid, pro-life voters are curious to know more about his views on abortion and other pertinent issues.

Trump has recently said several times over the last few months he is pro-life on abortion and that he changed his views from supporting abortion to pro-life based on his relationships with close personal friends who had children. Their pregnancy experiences, Trump maintains, allowed him to mature on the abortion issue to the point of now opposing abortion.

In a new interview with the Des Moines Register newspaper, Trump expanded on those comments.

“If you look at it, I said, ‘It really, really troubles me, and it really, really bothers me, the whole concept of abortion.’ This was years ago, and even then it really bothered me, but I went on the other side of the line,” Trump said. “But in thinking about it over the years, I’ve had instances, and one instance in particular, a friend had a child who they were going to abort, and now they have it, and the child is incredible. And the man, he changed his views also because of that.”

“As I’ve grown older, as I’ve seen things happen in life, I’ve changed my views — and others have also,” he said.

Trump said he believes abortion should only be legal in the very rare cases when a woman is pregnant by rape or incest or when the life of the mother is jeopardized by the pregnancy.

“Ronald Reagan had the same basic stances I had, and I absolutely believe in the three instances” of exception, he said. “I hope that I can convince Iowans that I will be the best to save our country, and the fact is, I am pro-life.”

Trump also commented on the issue of embryonic stem cell research — important because President Barack Obama overturned the pro-life protections President George W. Bush put into place that prevented taxpayers from being forced to pay for new research that included the destruction of human life for a process that has yet to help a single patient.

Trump told the Register newspaper he’s undecided on the controversial science and he wants to investigate it further before formulating an official position. He also appeared to recognize the controversial nature of embryonic stem cell research by assuring the newspaper he has not funded it in his business enterprises.

“I would say that I’d like to get back to you because I’m studying it very closely,” Trump said. “It’s an issue, don’t forget, that as a businessman I’ve never been involved in.”

Trump also talked with the Des Moines Register about his past contributions to Democratic candidates, many of whom support abortion.

“I’m a very big businessman. I deal with politicians all over the world. And New York is almost exclusively Democratic. You rarely see anybody that’s Republican even close to winning,” he explained. “And I live here and I do a lot of business here. So I do contribute to Democrats, and I think that’s a positive. … I have a lot of good relationships with Democrats, and it’s time the two parties get together and get this country’s problems solved instead of always fighting and fighting and nothing ever gets done. I am friendly with the other side.”

Recently, Trump faltered when asked a question about Roe v. Wade and appeared to not understand that privacy arguments are related to the case.