Donald Trump on Sunday defended his controversial comments last week on abortion by saying his remarks were in response to a “hypothetical” question.
“It was asked as a hypothetical, and talked about if it’s illegal. It was hypothetically asked,” the Republican front-runner said on “Fox News Sunday.”
On Tuesday, Trump was asked by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, “Do you believe in punishment for abortion as a principle?”
“The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment,” Trump replied. When asked if the punishment should be assessed against the woman getting the abortion, Trump said, “Yes, there has to be some form.”
Trump has since “corrected” that statement by saying that the punishment should be reserved for the doctor performing the operation, but he acknowledged Sunday that he should would “have rather answered it in a different manner.
Fox host Chris Wallace described the ensuing controversy as “remarkable” because he managed to offend both the pro-life and the pro-choice movements with one statement.
Trump deflected and said that even if he stood by his comment, “there would have been a very strong conservative answer, a very conservative group would have said that was the appropriate answer.”
“I’m not saying it was the appropriate answer,” he continued. “I say it’s the doctor’s fault, or whoever performs the act. It’s their fault, but there was a time when that would have been, and maybe today that would have been. But that was asked as a hypothetical question.”
