A spokeswoman for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump Donald John TrumpObama calls on Senate not to fill Ginsburg's vacancy until after election Planned Parenthood: 'The fate of our rights' depends on Ginsburg replacement Progressive group to spend M in ad campaign on Supreme Court vacancy MORE says the candidate misspoke a day earlier when he called for punishment for women who get abortions under a hypothetical ban.

"It was a complete misspeak during a conversation over a hypothetical concept and there was a clarification issued," Katrina Pierson told CNN on Thursday morning.

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Pierson said Trump is anti-abortion with exceptions and does not support punishing women for having illegal abortions.

Asked whether the businessman wants abortion to be banned nationwide, Pierson demurred.

"This is a state issue, that's the point here, these are states' issues," she said.

Trump drew controversy Wednesday for saying women should be punished for having illegal abortions, a comment that sparked backlash from both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates.

His campaign later issued a clarification, saying he would not punish a woman for getting an abortion.

"If Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal courts upheld this legislation, or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman," the campaign said in the statement.

Pierson said Trump's initial "misspeak" should not have become a "24-hour headline when we have things like terrorism going on in the world."