He stated this position at yesterday's town hall with Chris Matthews. It was interesting. As Matthews said, if you really believe abortion is murder, then don't you believe they should be punished?
Trump mentioned they have to get something-maybe a fine-and Matthews did a great job of boxing him in: 'A fine?! For murder?'
Trump tried to turn the table on Matthews by pointing out that he himself is a Catholic-and of course the Catholic Church says abortion is wrong. But Matthews refused to bite, saying that's religion but we're taking about the law here.
"Donald Trump swiftly reversed his statement that women should be punished for abortions after his initial comments unleashed a storm of criticism from both anti-abortion and pro-abortion rights groups."
“This issue is unclear and should be put back into the states for determination,” the Republican front-runner said in a written statement released by his campaign."
"But as criticism from outside groups and his political opponents continued unabated, the Trump campaign issued another missive that aligned the candidate more clearly with the traditional anti-abortion platform. In that second statement he suggested that if abortions were illegal the doctor would be held responsible, not the woman — but said that he hasn’t changed his position."
“If Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal courts upheld this legislation, or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman,” the statement read. “The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb. My position has not changed — like Ronald Reagan, I am pro-life with exceptions.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/donald-trump-illegal-abortions-punish-women-221391#ixzz44U1QzSe8
I do think, though, that this opens up an uncomfortable fissure in the prolife position. If it's against the law how can there not be penalties? The answer is that the prolifers have focused on doctors rather than the females who get the operation.
In other words, they hit supply not demand.
"The anti-abortion movement in recent decades has tried to avoid the perception that it is “punishing” women for having abortions. Instead, it has focused on penalties for the physicians who provide them, such as imposing medical or legal restrictions on their practice. In some rare situations, women have faced charges associated with abortions they have attempted on their own."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/donald-trump-illegal-abortions-punish-women-221391#ixzz44U2JelbR
This is interesting as previously, Trump has taken what looked like a more moderate position than his GOP rivals. Marco Rubio and John Kasich have very extreme views where they would ban abortion even in the case of rape and incest.
But in some ways this consensus prolife position begs the question. If you believe abortion is murder, how do you absolve the woman of any guilt? It's clearly a political calculation to make the position seem less monstrous.
"John Kasich, who said he would “absolutely not” punish women for abortions, accurately predicted Trump would scale back his comments. “I think probably Donald Trump will figure out a way to say that he didn’t say it or he was misquoted or whatever, but I don’t think so,” the Ohio governor told MSNBC. "I don’t think that’s an appropriate response, and it’s a difficult enough situation then to try to punish somebody.”
"Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign called the gaffe just another example of Trump misstepping. “Why? Because he’s a charlatan,” Cruz campaign chairman Chad Sweet said on CNN. “This is a man who for the vast majority of his life didn’t just embrace abortion. He embraced extreme forms of abortion all the way to partial-birth abortion.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/donald-trump-illegal-abortions-punish-women-221391#ixzz44U3WmEuV
Ted Cruz's criticism is interesting as he still doesn't want to be forced to hit Trump from the Left on abortion. So he suggests that Trump is just a charlatan on the issue-is really still prochoice.
And while Cruz doesn't call for women to be punished, he does want the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions. Which is pretty damn chilling in itself.
Again, what Trump has done is clumsily opened up a larger can of worms. The GOP usually doesn't like to discuss abortion too much in national politics-more at the state level. This embarrassment is going to keep this discussion front and center for perhaps a long time to come.
It may well be that Cruz is right-because Trump is a novice to the prolife movement he doesn't understand the way the movement handles politics. So again Trump kind of highlights what GOP policy really is.
The beauty is that once again, Trump uses a bullhorn for something the party prefers to use a dog whistle for.
Trump mentioned they have to get something-maybe a fine-and Matthews did a great job of boxing him in: 'A fine?! For murder?'
Trump tried to turn the table on Matthews by pointing out that he himself is a Catholic-and of course the Catholic Church says abortion is wrong. But Matthews refused to bite, saying that's religion but we're taking about the law here.
"Donald Trump swiftly reversed his statement that women should be punished for abortions after his initial comments unleashed a storm of criticism from both anti-abortion and pro-abortion rights groups."
“This issue is unclear and should be put back into the states for determination,” the Republican front-runner said in a written statement released by his campaign."
"But as criticism from outside groups and his political opponents continued unabated, the Trump campaign issued another missive that aligned the candidate more clearly with the traditional anti-abortion platform. In that second statement he suggested that if abortions were illegal the doctor would be held responsible, not the woman — but said that he hasn’t changed his position."
“If Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal courts upheld this legislation, or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman,” the statement read. “The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb. My position has not changed — like Ronald Reagan, I am pro-life with exceptions.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/donald-trump-illegal-abortions-punish-women-221391#ixzz44U1QzSe8
I do think, though, that this opens up an uncomfortable fissure in the prolife position. If it's against the law how can there not be penalties? The answer is that the prolifers have focused on doctors rather than the females who get the operation.
In other words, they hit supply not demand.
"The anti-abortion movement in recent decades has tried to avoid the perception that it is “punishing” women for having abortions. Instead, it has focused on penalties for the physicians who provide them, such as imposing medical or legal restrictions on their practice. In some rare situations, women have faced charges associated with abortions they have attempted on their own."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/donald-trump-illegal-abortions-punish-women-221391#ixzz44U2JelbR
This is interesting as previously, Trump has taken what looked like a more moderate position than his GOP rivals. Marco Rubio and John Kasich have very extreme views where they would ban abortion even in the case of rape and incest.
But in some ways this consensus prolife position begs the question. If you believe abortion is murder, how do you absolve the woman of any guilt? It's clearly a political calculation to make the position seem less monstrous.
"John Kasich, who said he would “absolutely not” punish women for abortions, accurately predicted Trump would scale back his comments. “I think probably Donald Trump will figure out a way to say that he didn’t say it or he was misquoted or whatever, but I don’t think so,” the Ohio governor told MSNBC. "I don’t think that’s an appropriate response, and it’s a difficult enough situation then to try to punish somebody.”
"Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign called the gaffe just another example of Trump misstepping. “Why? Because he’s a charlatan,” Cruz campaign chairman Chad Sweet said on CNN. “This is a man who for the vast majority of his life didn’t just embrace abortion. He embraced extreme forms of abortion all the way to partial-birth abortion.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/donald-trump-illegal-abortions-punish-women-221391#ixzz44U3WmEuV
Ted Cruz's criticism is interesting as he still doesn't want to be forced to hit Trump from the Left on abortion. So he suggests that Trump is just a charlatan on the issue-is really still prochoice.
And while Cruz doesn't call for women to be punished, he does want the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions. Which is pretty damn chilling in itself.
Again, what Trump has done is clumsily opened up a larger can of worms. The GOP usually doesn't like to discuss abortion too much in national politics-more at the state level. This embarrassment is going to keep this discussion front and center for perhaps a long time to come.
It may well be that Cruz is right-because Trump is a novice to the prolife movement he doesn't understand the way the movement handles politics. So again Trump kind of highlights what GOP policy really is.
The beauty is that once again, Trump uses a bullhorn for something the party prefers to use a dog whistle for.
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