Trump’s abortion comments reignite issue
Republican front-runner agrees that pregnancy termination is ‘murder’
Donald J. Trump said Friday that current laws on abortion should remain intact but also agreed with those who see abortion as “murder” in an interview taped for CBS’s Face the Nation.
Then his spokeswoman issued a statement saying he meant that the laws should remain intact only until he is inaugurated as president, at which time he would seek to change them.
The whiplash-inducing remarks from Trump and his team came two days after he sparked a firestorm of bipartisan controversy for telling MSNBC host Chris Matthews that there should be some form of “punishment” for women who have abortions if doing so becomes illegal. As he did on Friday, he walked back the punishment comments a few hours later, saying that only the practitioner should be punished.
His comments Friday will probably give fresh ammunition to conservatives who are eager to make abortion illegal and who have been skeptical of his conversion from an abortionrights Democrat to an anti-abortion Republican in the past several years.
“A question was asked to me,” Trump told CBS host John Dickerson. “And it was asked in a very hypothetical. And it was said, ‘Illegal, illegal?’ ”
He added, “I’ve been told by some people that was an older line answer and that was an answer that was given on a, you know, basis of an older line from years ago on a very conservative basis.”
When asked how he would further restrict abortion, Trump said, “The laws are set now on abortion and that’s the way they’re going to remain until they’re changed.”
“I would’ve preferred states’ rights,” he added, saying that the laws now “are set.” “And I think we have to leave it that way.”
A short time later, Trump’s spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said in a statement: “Mr. Trump gave an accurate account of the law as it is today and made clear it must stay that way now — until he is president. Then he will change the law through his judicial appointments and allow the states to protect the unborn. There is nothing new or different here.”
Dickerson also pressed Trump on the moral question of abortion. Much as he avoided Matthews’s initial question, Trump tried not to answer at first before ultimately agreeing with the premise of the questioning.
“Do you think abortion is murder?” Dickerson asked.
“I have my opinions on it, but I’d rather not comment on it,” Trump said.
Dickerson noted that Trump has said he is “very pro-life” and that the definition of that phrase means that “abortion is murder.”
“I mean, I do have my opinions on it. I just don’t think it’s an appropriate forum,” Trump said.
“But you don’t disagree with that proposition, that it’s murder?” Dickerson followed up.
“No, I don’t disagree with it,” Trump said.
In recent presidential elections, the issue of abortion has served to mobi- lize each party’s base without giving either side a clear advantage. Polling by Gallup shows the public’s views on abortion have been remarkably consistent since 1975 — about half of Americans want abortion to be legal only in some circumstances; less than a third want it to be legal in all cases (which is Clinton’s position). Surveys by the Pew Research Center say 51 per cent of U.S. adults want abortion to be legal in all or most cases, while 43 per cent say it should be mostly or totally illegal.
Trump’s stance on abortion is the same as previous Republican nominees dating back to Ronald Reagan — he wants to outlaw it, with excep- tions for rape, incest and when the mother’s life is at stake. His closest rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest, also went after Trump in a statement, saying, “Of course we shouldn’t be talking about punishing women.”
With his comments this week, Trump may have surrendered any remaining chance to rally Republicans strongly around him before the party’s July convention in Cleveland.
At a moment when a more traditional front-runner might have sought to smooth over divisions within his party and turn his attention to the general election, Trump has only intensified his slash-andburn, no-apologies approach to the campaign.
“He should have started uniting the party in March,” said Henry Barbour, a Republican National Committee member from Mississippi who previously supported Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, “and he is making it harder on himself.”
Republicans who once worried that Trump might gain overwhelming momentum in the primaries are now becoming preoccupied with a different grim prospect: that Trump might become a kind of zombie candidate — damaged beyond the point of repair, but too late for any of his rivals to stop him.