Trump: Women who undergo abortions should be punished

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is sure to ruffle some feathers with comments regarding abortion he made on Wednesday.

Speaking to MSNBC, Trump said he believes there should be punishment for women who undergo abortions if the procedure was outlawed, though he indicated he has yet to determine what that punishment should be.

During the interview, the GOP frontrunner described himself multiple times as “pro-life” but struggled to define what the legal ramifications of that position should be.

When continually pressed for what the answer is regarding punishing women who would break any theoretical ban on abortion, Trump said the “answer is that there has to be some form of punishment, yeah.”

Then, when asked what kind of punishment he had in mind, Trump lacked specifics and said he has “not determined what the punishment would be.” He noted that he does “take positions on everything else but this is a very complicated position.”

The interviewer, Chris Matthews, then said, “If you say abortion is a crime or abortion is murder, you have to deal with it under the law,” to which Trump replied, “Are you going to say, well wait, are you going to say put them in jail? Is that the punishment you’re talking about?”

Matthews responded that that’s the question he was asking the front-runner himself. Trump responded that he was pro-life.

After the interview, the Trump campaign released a statement saying, “This issue is unclear and should be put back into the states for determination. Like Ronald Reagan, I am pro- life with exceptions, which I have outlined numerous times.”

Ohio Governor John Kasich, who is running against Trump for the Republican nomination, was asked if he agreed with the billionaire on the prospect of punishing women for abortion, to which he replied, “Absolutely not. I do have exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother but of course women shouldn’t be punished.”

The interview comes just one day after Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was charged with assault, over an incident in which a journalist was violently manhandled at a campaign event.

Lewandowski was charged with simple battery over a confrontation with former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields.

He plans to plead not guilty, the Trump campaign said.