Trump: Women Who Get Illegal Abortions Should Be Punished

If abortions are banned, which they should be, there needs to be "some form of punishment" for women who have them. So says Donald Trump in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews scheduled to air Wednesday evening, Bloomberg reports. During the interview, Trump proclaimed himself pro-life multiple times but attempted to dodge questions about what that means in terms of the law, according to NBC News. He eventually said women—but not men—would need to be punished, though he was unable to specify what that punishment would be. He also acknowledged that a ban on abortions would just send women to "illegal places" to get them, but "you have to ban it" regardless.

Huffington Post reports there was an immediate outcry over Trump's comments, with Hillary Clinton calling them "horrific and telling" and Bernie Sanders saying they were "shameful." But the idea of punishing women was even too far for many pro-life Republicans, who usually seek to punish the doctors providing abortions. Following the backlash, Trump did a complete 180 on his previous comments. If abortion is made illegal, "the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman," CBS News quotes a statement from Trump. Trump's comments on punishing women for getting abortions came in the same week he's trying to improve his plummeting support among women. (More Donald Trump stories.)