Story highlights Donald Trump on Friday argued that federal laws should not be changed to outlaw abortion

"At this moment the laws are set. And I think we have to leave it that way," Trump said

(CNN) Donald Trump on Friday appeared to again reverse his position on abortion, arguing that federal laws should not be changed to outlaw the procedure.

"At this moment the laws are set. And I think we have to leave it that way," Trump said Friday in an interview with CBS's John Dickerson on "Face the Nation." The full interview will air Sunday morning.

But soon after the comments became public, Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said Trump was giving "an accurate account of the law as it is today and made clear it must stay that way now -- until he is president. Then he will change the law through his judicial appointments and allow the states to protect the unborn. There is nothing new or different here."

Trump's campaign has been engulfed in controversy since Wednesday, when he told MSNBC's Chris Matthews that women who undergo abortions should face "some form of punishment" if the procedure were outlawed. He walked away from that statement within hours amid bipartisan condemnation, saying if abortion was banned, it would be doctors, not women, facing punishment.

Trump has articulated an anti-abortion position while surging to the top of the Republican presidential race. As recently as Wednesday, Trump told Matthews that "you have to ban (abortion)." In the CBS interview, he said he "would've liked" for abortion to be decided on a state-by-state basis.

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