Business mogul Donald Trump hedged on a question concerning efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, raising new questions about his position on abortion.
During an appearance on CNN’s “New Day” Tuesday, the GOP front-runner said he “would look at the good aspects of [Planned Parenthood]” prior to considering defunding the organization altogether.
“What I would do when the time came, I’d look at the individual things they do, and maybe some of the individual things they do are good,” he told host Chris Cuomo.
Before being pushed by Cuomo on the defund Planned Parenthood movement, the billionaire real estate magnate called the organization an “abortion factory” and said his problem with it specifically relates to the “abortion situation.”
“That should not be funded by the government, and I feel strongly about that,” Trump said.
However, Trump refused to give a definitive answer on whether he would maintain federal funding for non-abortion-related services provided by Planned Parenthood. Critics point out that the money is fungible and would still help the organization’s abortion services indirectly.
Three years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Hyde Amendment, which banned most federal funding of abortion.
“I’m sure they do some things properly and good and that are good for women, and I would look at that, and I would look at other aspects also,” Trump said, adding that “we have to take care of women.”
The GOP candidate’s muddled position comes less than a week after conservative radio show host, Hugh Hewitt, asked Trump if he would support a government shutdown in order to defund the nation’s largest abortion provider.
“Well I can tell you this: I would,” he responded at the time.
