Republican front-runner Donald Trump on Sunday defended his recent controversial abortion remarks by arguing that women would only "hypothetically" be punished if the practice was outlawed.

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace pointed out that Trump's campaign had been plagued by problems in recent days, from his top aide being charged with assault to his comment that women deserved "some form of punishment" for abortion.

"Are you in the process of blowing your campaign for president?" Wallace asked Trump at the beginning of the interview.

Trump, however, predicted that the controversy over his comments about abortion would lead to "even higher poll numbers."

"You offended both the pro-life and pro-choice movement with one statement," Wallace observed.

"Look, it was asked as a hypothetical, and talked about if it's illegal and it was hypothetically asked," Trump replied. "A very strong conservative group would have said that was the appropriate answer. I'm not saying it was the appropriate answer, I say it's the doctor's fault or whoever performs the act, it's their fault."

The billionaire candidate added that "there was a time" when women would have been punished for having abortions.

"But why did you say the woman?" Wallace pressed.

"Because it was asked hypothetically," Trump repeated. "I said the woman because it was asked hypothetically. I also corrected it, and I made it very much so that I think everybody -- it's acceptable now to everybody."