GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN, United States (Reuters) — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said on Wednesday (March 30) that women who end pregnancies should face punishment if the United States bans abortion, triggering a torrent of criticism from both sides of the abortion debate, including from his White House rivals.
After MSNBC broadcast a clip of an interview with Trump, the billionaire rowed back his remarks, first saying that the abortion issue should be handled by states and later saying that doctors who performed abortions should be the person held responsible.
“The doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman,” Trump said in his last statement. “The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb.”
Trump’s earlier statements drew heavy fire from abortion rights supporters and opponents alike.
Abortion has long been a divisive issue in American politics, even though the procedure was legalized in a Supreme Court ruling more than 40 years ago. Opposition to abortion has become a central plank in the platform of most conservative politicians.
Trump has won support from Republican voters for selling himself as a Washington outsider. But the billionaire businessman, who at one time supported abortion access, has come under pressure from conservatives to prove he is truly one of them. At the same time, he has drawn criticism for comments that offended women and minority groups.
Rival Republican candidate John Kasich, who says he opposes abortion except in specific cases such as rape, said that women should not be punished.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, the third Republican candidate, said Trump had not thought through the issue.
Abortion rights supporters were equally incensed.
Dawn Laguens of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the political arm of the women’s health group, called Trump “flat-out dangerous” in a statement.
Abortion was legalized in the United States in 1973, when the Supreme Court declared that a woman’s constitutional right to privacy protects her decision to end a pregnancy.
In the decades since then, there have not been enough votes on the Supreme Court to reverse the ruling, but numerous states have passed laws aimed at restricting abortion.
In the MSNBC interview, which is to air in full later on Wednesday, Trump said if the United States banned abortion, some women would seek to end pregnancies illegally.
“There has to be some form of punishment,” he said. Asked what form he would advocate, Trump said, “That I don’t know.”
Anti-abortion groups said Trump’s comments were at odds with their own stance. “In all the positions the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has taken around the issue of abortion, they have not called for punishment of women who’ve had abortions,” said Don Clemmer, a spokesman for the group.
After the backlash started, Trump’s campaign sought to moderate his view. “This issue is unclear and should be put back into the states for determination,” Trump said in a statement provided to Reuters by email.
Later, Trump walked back his comments further to say doctors, not women, should be responsible.
In other remarks that have set off furious reactions, Trump has called illegal immigrants from Mexico criminals and rapists and has pushed for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
In Wednesday’s MSNBC interview, Trump said he would not rule out the possibility of using nuclear weapons to combat Islamic State militants. “I would never take any of my cards off the table,” he said.