Posted on 04/01/2016 4:29:09 PM PDT by ConservativeTeen
Donald Trump said Friday that he believes the laws regulating abortion should stay as they are, but he doesn't disagree with the proposition that abortion is murder.
The GOP frontrunner lit a fresh controversy this week with his shifting responses to a question on abortion policy. He said during an MSNBC town hall on Tuesday that he'd like to see the practice banned, and that women who undergo it should face "some form of punishment." But he quickly backtracked, explaining in a statement that while he believes it should be banned, the punishment should be levied on abortion providers, not the women seeking abortions.
Trump sought to clarify his position during an interview on Friday with "Face the Nation" moderator John Dickerson. The interview will air, in part, on Sunday's broadcast.
"A question was asked to me. And it was asked in a very hypothetical. And it was said, 'Illegal, illegal,'" Trump explained. "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."
Asked how he'd like to change the law to further restrict access to abortions, Trump replied, "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. "I think it would've been better if it were up to the states. But right now, the laws are set....At this moment, the laws are set. And I think we have to leave it that way."
"Do you think abortion is murder?" Dickerson asked.
"I have my opinions on it, but I'd rather not comment on it," Trump replied.
"You said you were very pro-life," Dickerson followed up. "Pro-life means that...abortion is murder."
"I mean, I do have my opinions on it. I just don't think it's an appropriate forum," said Trump.
"But you don't disagree with that proposition, that it's murder?" Dickerson asked.
"No, I don't disagree with it," Trump eventually replied.
The back-and-forth over abortion wasn't the only political controversy involving Trump this week. He also stood by his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who's been charged with battery after allegedly grabbing a reporter's arm during a public event last month. And he suggested on Tuesday that he no longer feels bound by his pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee, complaining that the party has treated him "very unfairly."
Despite a chorus of critics assailing both moves, Trump told "Face the Nation" it hasn't been the worst week of his campaign.
"I think I've had many bad weeks and I've had many good weeks. I don't see this as the worst week in my campaign," he said. "But certainly, I've had some weeks, and you've been reporting on them, where that was the end. And then the next week, you see poll numbers where they went up and everybody's shocked."
"So yeah, people want to stop me because I'm leading by a lot," he added.
For more of the interview with Trump, tune into "Face the Nation" on Sunday. Check your local listings for airtimes. © 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Thanks for your reply.
There was an outcry at the time. The National Right to Life Committee formed with the explicit goal of reversing Roe v. Wade. There was a great deal of other opposition. Opposition that continues to this day.
The false argument was “back-alley/coat hanger abortion vs. universal legalized abortion.”
I do agree with your position in this regard: the culture was degraded then and even moreso now to where abortion is not realized for what it is - the degradation of life.
thanks again.
Can anybody tell me what the heck this "explanation" means? What kind of gobbledygook is this? It looks like his brain is laid out like a ransom note (apologies to Brian Sussman).
Yep. And thanks for the Sussman reference.
How is it that folks don’t notice this spaghetti?
The judicial activists made abortion legal in the first place. They made a bad decision. It should be overturned. You don’t want it overturned?
A state could possibly ban abortion if Roe vs. Wade was overturned. A state can’t now, but they could in a very conservative state. Saying nothing will change plays into the left’s hands and says we should drop the issue. It may take many, many years, but we can never stop fighting for or stop believing in the right to life. There are millions of lives at stake, lives that will die a brutal death.
Yes, I want it overturned, but not by breaking the Constitution to do it. Judicial activism is against what the Founding Fathers envisioned. Embracing such activism is contrary to conservative principles. We need another Scalia or Thomas not another Roberts or Kennedy.
How is he breaking the Constitution by appointing justices to overturn an unconstitutional decision? Further, abortion in itself is a violation of the 5th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution which say that all persons have a right to life unless there is guilt of some sort of crime. Abortion is killing a human being. Anything that can be done to stop it, I’m ok with.
...I purposely didn’t address the point,.... you signed up just 2 days ago...posted 5 times while smearing Cruz from the soapbox you dragged in with you.
I don’t converse with strangers who knock at my door without at the very least an introduction NEWBIE!...and certainly not when they crap on my lawn.
First in....are the Kitties out????
"TRUMP: Look, I’m very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion. I hate it. I hate everything it stands for. I cringe when I listen to people debating the subject, but you still — I just believe in choice. Again, it might have a little to due with a New York background, because there are some different attitudes in different parts of the country … but again, I am strongly for choice, and yet I hate the concept of abortion. I am pro-choice in every respect, but I just hate it."
------Donald Trump October 24, 1999.
Before the 2 flip flops (in a 2 hour period) on the issue this week, how many were there between 1999 and 2016. Inquiring minds want to know. Truth is ,that when you change you mind that mean times, it is pure hypocrisy to allude this as "INNER CORE", under any circumstance.
No, but the twitterfeed media has busted a gut to try to make it look that way. Hesaid/shesaid/hesaid/shesaid/she thinks maybe he said...all done by people who obviously don't understand the English language.
Cruz did not side with the SOROS PAID 'protesters' rioting in the streets, in fact he said they were responsible for their own actions. He has been consistently pro-life.
So, nOOb, thanks for playing. Why don't you go back to DU?
....”There was an outcry at the time. The National Right to Life Committee formed with the explicit goal of reversing Roe v. Wade. There was a great deal of other opposition. Opposition that continues to this day.”.....
Yes they did fight.....I have joined those groups , standing on corners with signs and supporting those who were fighting in Congress....and still do.... But the outcry still isn’t strong enough. The ‘attitude’ and often quoted position for most today is it’s a “settled matter” and they believe that it is.
How loud and long were voices raised recently when exposing the brutality of Planned parenthood and selling of baby parts? ....What more could possibly show these brutal practices against children who’s life were not only murdered but hacked up into pieces and sold??? Millions now.... and still the silence is deafening.
I personally fought to save a child against all the voices telling her, and her family, that to abort was the better option.. ...and let me tell you when you’re in that trench it’s like fighting in another world. Ultimately it ended up the families ‘Pastor’ drove this gal, along with her mother, to the abortion clinic where this wee babies life was taken......However, two or three weeks later that young gal was decapitated when she ran out into the street into a car. So not only was there the death of a grandchild for the mother of this gal, but the mother also suffered the loss of her daughter..... Terrible pain and heart-wretching all around.
To this day I have never forgotten this time...the battle and how intense it was....how they finally agreed she would have the baby....then to learn, with the utter shock, that her pastor drove them to the clinic,... the flood of tears I cried for this baby whose life was then gone.....only to then hear of the car accident so soon after. I still shake my head today...so unbelievable.
Perhaps it was simply assumed.
Fine. I am pro-life, too. But you will never win a nationwide election if you make that the top plank in your platform. National security is, as it should be, the #1 priority.
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