The 2016 Blast The latest POLITICO scoops and coverage of the 2016 elections. Email Sign Up

Tweets from https://twitter.com/politico/lists/team-politico



The Donald Trump campaign issued another statement that aligned the candidate more clearly with the traditional anti-abortion platform. | Getty Trump reverses statement that women should be punished for illegal abortions

Donald Trump swiftly reversed his statement that women should be punished for abortions after his initial comments unleashed a storm of criticism from both anti-abortion and pro-abortion rights groups.

“This issue is unclear and should be put back into the states for determination,” the Republican front-runner said in a written statement released by his campaign.

But as criticism from outside groups and his political opponents continued unabated, the Trump campaign issued another missive that aligned the candidate more clearly with the traditional anti-abortion platform. In that second statement he suggested that if abortions were illegal the doctor would be held responsible, not the woman — but said that he hasn’t changed his position.

“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 statement read. “The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb. My position has not changed — like Ronald Reagan, I am pro-life with exceptions.”

For a candidate who has sparked consternation and outrage in the past, Wednesday might be the first time he's said something that seemingly nobody liked. Trump’s retreat followed nearly universal condemnation from a diverse group of Democrats, Republicans and anti-abortion and pro-abortion-rights organizations, who blasted the billionaire from every direction.

The real estate mogul kicked off the firestorm when he told MSNBC host Chris Matthews that abortion “is a very serious problem, and it’s a problem we have to decide on." But he didn’t stop there.

“There has to be some form of punishment,” Trump said in a pretaped appearance on the network’s town hall event scheduled to air Wednesday evening, adding that a penalty would have to be determined for women who obtain abortions, should the procedure be deemed illegal.

Trump’s suggestion was a sharp departure from most current state abortion restrictions, which don’t impose penalties on women who get abortions. Typically, any penalties are imposed on the physician who performs the procedure.

The anti-abortion group March for Life, one of many organizations to rebuke the billionaire, said his comments ran afoul of the core tenets of the anti-abortion movement.

“Mr. Trump’s comment today is completely out of touch with the pro-life movement and even more with women who have chosen such a sad thing as abortion,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. “No pro-lifer would ever want to punish a woman who has chosen abortion. This is against the very nature of what we are about. We invite a woman who has gone down this route to consider paths to healing, not punishment.”

The anti-abortion movement in recent decades has tried to avoid the perception that it is “punishing” women for having abortions. Instead, it has focused on penalties for the physicians who provide them, such as imposing medical or legal restrictions on their practice. In some rare situations, women have faced charges associated with abortions they have attempted on their own.

Trump suggests women should be punished for illegal abortions During a town hall interview with MSNBC host Chris Matthews, Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested that women should be punished for seeking abortions if the procedure is outlawed.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) slammed Trump’s “radical agenda” but suggested it was one that congressional Republicans support. House Republicans this Congress have voted a dozen times to “attack” health care for women, she said.

“Donald Trump’s radical call for criminalizing women’s reproductive decisions is just the latest outrage in Republicans’ ongoing campaign to dismantle women’s rights to comprehensive health care,” she said.

Trump’s presidential rivals also pounced on his blunder. Hillary Clinton called his remarks appalling. “Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse,” she tweeted. “Horrific and telling.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders took a shot at the Republican Party as he blasted the “shameful” front-runner. “Your Republican front-runner, ladies and gentlemen,” he tweeted. “Shameful.”

Later in an interview with MSNBC, Sanders elaborated on what he meant: "I think it is — shameful is probably understating that position ... To punish a woman for having an abortion is beyond comprehension," he said according to a pre-released transcript.

John Kasich, who said he would “absolutely not” punish women for abortions, accurately predicted Trump would scale back his comments. “I think probably Donald Trump will figure out a way to say that he didn’t say it or he was misquoted or whatever, but I don’t think so,” the Ohio governor told MSNBC. "I don’t think that’s an appropriate response, and it’s a difficult enough situation then to try to punish somebody.”

Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign called the gaffe just another example of Trump misstepping. “Why? Because he’s a charlatan,” Cruz campaign chairman Chad Sweet said on CNN. “This is a man who for the vast majority of his life didn’t just embrace abortion. He embraced extreme forms of abortion all the way to partial-birth abortion.”

Other groups assailing Trump for his rhetoric included Planned Parenthood, Emily’s List and Susan B. Anthony List.

Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said the organization was nearly speechless. “Donald Trump is flat-out dangerous. Women's lives are not disposable,” Laguens said. “There's nothing else to say, as Donald Trump's remarks today have said it all.”

Emily’s List agreed that Trump is dangerous for women. “The last person women need to police their health care decisions is someone who sees them not as people, but as ‘fat pigs,’ ‘bimbos’ and ‘disgusting animals,’" said Marcy Stech, a spokeswoman for the pro-abortion-rights group that helps elect female Democrats. “Republicans are about to nominate a truly dangerous man to lead their fight to restrict women’s access to abortion.”

Susan B. Anthony List added that it’s never advocated for punishment of women who undergo abortions. “As a convert to the pro-life movement, Mr. Trump sees the reality of the horror of abortion — the destruction of an innocent human life — which is legal in our country up until the moment of birth,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group. “But let us be clear: Punishment is solely for the abortionist who profits off of the destruction of one life and the grave wounding of another.”

Trump has been a controversial figure on the subject of abortion. He recounted a personal story during a Republican debate in August, explaining that having a friend come so close to aborting a child inspired his evolution on abortion rights.

“It was going to be aborted, and that child today is a total superstar,” Trump said in August. “It is a great, great child.”

As recently as 2000, Trump called himself “very pro-choice,” but he has publicly identified himself as “pro-life” since 2011. Nevertheless, some of the most prominent anti-abortion groups earlier this year urged Republican primary voters to support alternatives to Trump after he suggested he would consider former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown as a running mate, or his sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, as a Supreme Court justice — both of whom support abortion rights. The real estate mogul has also upset anti-abortion advocates with statements defending Planned Parenthood during the campaign.

Even as Trump faces high unfavorable ratings among women and has vigorously defended his campaign manager after a simple battery charge for allegedly forcefully grabbing a female reporter, the billionaire claims he’s the best candidate for women.

“Nobody will be better to women,” he told supporters, repeating an oft-used line Wednesday during a rally in Appleton, Wisconsin. “And nobody will be better to women.”

The Supreme Court ruled abortions legal in the U.S. in the landmark case Roe v. Wade.

Eliza Collins, Nick Gass and Jason Millman contributed to this report.