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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally at the Milwaukee Theatre Monday, April 4, in Milwaukee. | AP Photo Trump: Abortion response was 'not a wrong answer'

Donald Trump gave a “great answer” last week when he said women could be punished for having abortions, he said on Monday evening.

Trump and his campaign last week walked back his comments during an MSNBC town hall, in which he told host Chris Matthews he backed an abortion ban and suggested women who have abortions be punished if the procedure were outlawed. Conservatives were outraged, and within hours, his campaign sent out two statements clarifying that he would punish only abortion providers — not women

“That was a hypothetical question. That was not a wrong answer,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity during his show Monday night in Wisconsin. “There were other people that wrote me letters by the hundreds saying that was a great answer to that question the way it was raised.”

Trump maintained that he is “pro-life,” remarking that “I come with the three exceptions” — for rape, incest and life of the mother.

“You know, I’m pro-life, OK, with the exceptions, but I am pro-life,” he said. “I did the show because it’s not a high-rated show. He’s always been — I mean, he has never treated me very badly. And I didn’t think it was a big thing to do the show, and as a hypothetical question you give a hypothetical answer, and I didn’t see the big, big, huge deal.”

The New York billionaire suggested that Ohio Gov. John Kasich gave “such a bad answer” on abortion that got no coverage.

“I’m saying to myself, ‘He’s gonna get killed for that answer,’” Trump recalled. “Nobody ever said anything. Nobody ever talks about it. Nobody cares.”

Trump compounded his problems with conservatives on Sunday when he told CBS' John Dickerson he did not support overturning existing abortion laws — comments his campaign again had to clarify by saying he would change them as president.