Donald Trump is at it again. The Republican presidential candidate who says he’s pro-life but praises the Planned Parenthood abortion business is now making the entirely pro-life movement look ridiculous with his latest comments.
While pro-life advocates yearn for the day when unborn children are protected under law and abortions are banned, the pro-life movement has historically opposed punishing women who have abortions — instead focusing on holding abortion practitioners criminally accountable for the unborn children they kill in abortions.
That pro-woman mentality is partly due to the understand that the abortion industry preys on women — selling them abortions by lying to them about the humanity of their unborn children and the destructive effects abortion will have. The pro-woman, pro-life attitude is also partly due to the fact that the pro-life movement is led by millions of women who had abortions and now deeply regret their decisions, thanks to a change of heart on abortion, or a religious conversion or a simply understanding that they took the life of their own child.
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Now, in new comments that are causing even pro-life people to cringe, Donald Trump says women should be punished if abortion is banned again. Here’s more:
In a taped town hall interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews to be aired later on Wednesday, Trump was pressed on how he would go about banning abortion.
“Should abortion be punished? This is not something you can dodge,” Matthews asked him.
“Look, people in certain parts of the Republican Party, conservative Republicans, would say, ‘Yes, it should,’” Trump responded.
Matthews then pressed him for a straight answer on what a ban on abortion would entail.
“Well, you go back to a position like they had where they would perhaps go to illegal places but we have to ban it,” Trump answered.
The former reality television star later added that “there has to be some form of punishment,” for women who get abortions after a ban is implemented, acknowledging the punishment would “have to be determined.”
.@realDonaldTrump on “banning” abortion pic.twitter.com/SKG9R6ubCW
— POLITICO Video (@POLITICOvideo) March 30, 2016
UPDATE: Trump has issued a clarification of his statement:
UPDATE 2: Trump has now done a 180 and say abortion doctors should be punished, not women.
Leading pro-life advocates on Twitter collectively face-palmed were quick to point out the ineptitude of Trump’s comments, saying they make him look as if he is not genuinely pro-life:
An example of his profound ignorance doing damage to the movement he’s pretending to support. https://t.co/jOUi1sEXuB — Guy Benson (@guypbenson) March 30, 2016
Only someone who has no idea what it means to be pro-life and doesn’t know pro-lifers would propose this. https://t.co/uuhDw4WjeD — Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) March 30, 2016
Couldn’t agree more. Not mainstream, or really anyone I know who is pro-life. https://t.co/EtpQwZiMbl
— Jeanne F. Mancini (@jeannemfl) March 30, 2016
This is what happens when you nominate a candidate who is not well versed on the life issue.https://t.co/kqlbcJ3qGj
— Michael New (@Michael_J_New) March 30, 2016
No, no, guys, you don’t understand, he’s going to win blue states. He’s not Todd Akin or anything. https://t.co/5utG0ztnrq — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 30, 2016
“Let’s punish people who have abortions” is the kind of thing someone who is pretending to be super pro-life would say.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) March 30, 2016
He’s a walking cartoon parody of every leftist accusation against Republicans https://t.co/qN5JBSf83a — Sunny (@sunnyright) March 30, 2016
So he’s a pro-choice guy, but with a stance considered nuts by almost every pro-lifer.
Yeah. https://t.co/rLUwvzAIpI
— Nathan Wurtzel (@NathanWurtzel) March 30, 2016
Even the most ardent pro-lifers think this is an awful, awful idea. That’s how tone deaf and inept he is. https://t.co/qEfUwYF7yn — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 30, 2016
This is the way you talk when you try to sound like a pro-lifer, but you aren’t, and you hold them in disdain https://t.co/29JK7vUO9W
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) March 30, 2016