Donald Trump has made one of his most controversial and threatening comments to date, claiming that abortions should be banned, and that women who seek out illegal abortions need to be punished for it. But despite his outrageous remark, former GOP presidential contender Ben Carson defended the Republican presidential frontrunner's answer.
Following a town hall interview with MSNBC, CNN turned to Ben Carson, who was quick to defend the 69-year-old billionaire over what he said as nothing more than a misunderstanding.
"Bear in mind, I don't believe that he was warned that that question was coming, and I don't think he really had a chance to really think about it," Carson told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday evening.
“I agree that the woman is the victim,” he added. “She’s traumatized emotionally and in many other ways, and that’s problematic. In terms of who should be punished, that woman has already been punished. If it has become illegal, then obviously the person performing the abortion is the person who is breaking the law.”
During the interview with Chris Matthews, Trump said that he supports a ban on abortion and that if a woman tries to get one illegally, then "there has to be some form of punishment."
Hours later, Trump's campaign sent out a press release saying the exact opposite of what he said earlier about punishing women.
If abortion was made illegal, Trump's statement read, "the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman."
After Trump's initial comments were made public, the hashtag #AbortionPunishment surfaced on Twitter. Many pro-choice supporters pointed out that women already face many restrictions in trying to access legal abortions.
