Donald Trump has often disgusted abortion opponents, but at Wednesday night’s presidential debate he showed why they’re still sticking by him.
In a sharp exchange over late-term abortion, Trump criticized Hillary Clinton for voting in the Senate against the 2003 ban on partial-birth abortion.
“If you go with what Hillary is saying, in the ninth month you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb in the moment prior to the birth,” Trump said. “You can say that’s OK, and Hillary can say that’s OK, but it’s not OK with me.”
Debate moderator Chris Wallace had asked Clinton to explain why she opposed the ban and why she supports allowing abortions up until birth. Those positions are major reasons why conservatives have largely sided with Trump, despite his past support for abortion rights and questionable personal behavior.
Clinton gave the same response she has offered in the past, saying she voted against the partial-birth abortion ban because she didn’t believe it included adequate protections for the life and health of the woman.
And she suggested there shouldn’t be any limits on late-term abortions, saying those decisions are often “painful” for women to make.
“The kinds of cases that fall at the end of pregnancy are often the most heartbreaking, painful decisions for families to make,” Clinton said.
Polls show that about half of Americans believe abortion is morally wrong but about three-quarters support at least some limits on late-term abortions. Only a small minority of abortions take place in the last half of pregnancy, and many states limit the procedure past about 24 weeks.
Trump, who used to support abortion rights but say he now opposes them, called late-term abortions “terrible,” a characterization that is likely to win him heavy criticism from Planned Parenthood and other women’s groups but applause from anti-abortion groups.
“Nobody has business … doing that as late as two or three or four days prior to birth,” Trump said.
