Bloomberg: Trump Wants to Punish Abortion Seekers


According to Bloomberg, Donald Trump wants to both outlaw abortion and see women who seek unlawful abortions punished. During the taping of an MSNBC special yet to be aired, host Chris Matthews backed the Republican front runner into a corner on the issue.

Trump, having undergone a politically convenient awakening as concerns the sacredness of fetal life, has had a hard time positioning himself as a genuine opponent of abortion–especially compared to the likes of budding theocrat Ted Cruz.

Matthews tenaciously pressed the question on Trump, blatantly telling the failed casino magnate that “This is not something you can dodge.” Trump tried to avoid the question, laying the push to ban abortion and punish those who seek one at the feet of “certain parts of the Republican Party.” Matthews refused to relent.

After further dithering in which Trump bizarrely asked Matthews whether he would send women to jail for defying abortion laws, the suddenly very pro-life nominal Republican answered. “There has to be some form of punishment” for such women, he said. He left the exact nature of the punishment unspecified.

As recently as 1999, Trump has publicly described himself as “very pro-choice.” Presidential hopeful and Christian extremist Cruz has repeatedly attacked Trump for his “New York values” and perceived waffling on matters of conservative (and scriptural) dogma. While Trump’s devotion to misogyny is known to be unwavering, his commitment to Biblical principles has been less so.

Trump’s apparent reluctance to take the hard-line position may be more telling than the fact that he took it. The man known for defying his party, the media, the public, and the dictates of common reason in refusing to meliorate his views seems to have been driven farther right by the need to court voters that would otherwise support Cruz.

That he has been driven at all may represent the first crack in the facade of a candidate who formerly seemed immune to political pressure of any kind. That he has been driven to call for the prosecution of women who act outside the protection of the law in order to live within the protection of the Constitution represents a new low.

 

Featured image by Gage Skidmore via Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 Generic license

Conor O'Grady is a tree-hugging, wealth-redistributing, science-trusting, civil-rights-endorsing Irish-American who can barely contain his snark these days.