Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has taken a strongly pro-life position on abortions in cases of rape or incest in a new interview.
“I would not be in favor of killing a baby because the baby came about in that way,” Carson said over the weekend during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with Chuck Todd on Sunday.
“Rape and incest, I would not be in favor of killing a baby because the baby came about in that way,” explained Carson. “And all you have to do is go and look up the many stories of people who have led very useful lives who were the result of rape or incest.”
Attempting to make Carson look like an extremist on abortion or anti-woman, Todd pressed further, asking who’s right “should be superseded? The mother or the unborn child? Who’s right, who has greater rights?”
Carson insisted, “In the ideal situation, the mother should not believe that the baby is her enemy and should not be looking to terminate the baby.”
“You know, things are set up in such a way that the person in the world who has the greatest interest in protecting the baby is the mother,” claimed Carson. “We’ve allowed the purveyors of the vision to make mothers think that that baby is their enemy and that they have a right to kill it. Can you see how perverted that line of thinking is?”
During the interview, host Chuck Todd asked, “Does life begin at conception?”
Carson said “I believe it does.”
Carson also said he strongly opposes abortion in cases where there is an unplanned pregnancy — which constitutes the most number of cases of abortions.
“Think about this. During slavery– and I know that’s one of those words you’re not supposed to say, but I’m saying it,” explained Carson. “During slavery, a lot of the slave owners thought that they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave. Anything that they chose to do. And, you know, what if the abolitionist had said, you know, ‘I don’t believe in slavery. I think it’s wrong. But you guys do whatever you want to do?’ Where would we be?”
The Republican presidential candidate also said he supports repealing Roe v. Wade.
“I would like to see it done in the right way. Ultimately, I would want to see it overturned,” he said, adding that he can’t imagine anyone could come up with a valid reason to kill unborn babies in abortions. “I’m a reasonable person. And if people can come up with a reasonable explanation of why they would like to kill a baby, I’ll listen.”
Still, Carson said he could understand the rare instance where abortion might somehow be necessary to save the life of the mother.
During the interview, Carson said “that’s a extraordinarily rare situation. But if in that very rare situation it occurred, I believe there’s room to discuss that.
