Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump reportedly argued Wednesday that there would “have to be some form of punishment” for women who get abortions illegally if the procedure were banned in the country.

Mr. Trump made the comment during a taping of an MSNBC town hall with Chris Matthews to be aired Wednesday night, according to Bloomberg Politics.

“Should abortion be punished?” Mr. Matthews asked the mogul.

“I would say it’s a very serious problem and it’s a problem we have to decide on. Are you going to send them to jail?” Mr. Trump mused.

“I’m asking you,” Mr. Matthews said.

“I am pro-life,” Mr. Trump replied, adding “you go back to a position like they had where they would perhaps go to illegal places but we have to ban it.”

Asked whether he believes there should be punishment for abortion if it were illegal, Mr. Trump said, “There has to be some form of punishment.”

“For the woman?” Mr. Matthews asked.

“Yeah,” Mr. Trump said, adding that the punishment would “have to be determined,” Bloomberg reported.

Mr. Trump said the stakes of the general election are at an all-time high due to the death of conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

“They’ve set the law and frankly the judges, you’re going to have a very big election coming up for that reason because you have judges where it’s a real tipping point and with the loss of Scalia, who was a very strong conservative, this presidential election is going to be very important,” Mr. Trump said, according to Bloomberg. “When you say what’s the law, nobody knows what the law is going to be. It depends on who gets elected.”