Donald Trump Refuses to Answer Questions on Abortion Restrictions, Calling Previous Remarks “Hypothetical”
For Immediate Release: April 4, 2016
Washington, DC –– Today in an interview with moderator John Dickerson on CBS’ Face the Nation, Donald Trump refused to articulate how he would further restrict abortion access if elected president, saying that his remarks earlier this week that abortion should be illegal and that women should face “some form of punishment” for having an abortion were “hypothetical.”
Asked what he would do to further restrict women’s access to abortion as president, Trump didn’t answer the question, instead backtracking to address his Wednesday comments: "A question was asked to me. And it was asked in a very hypothetical….And it was said, 'Illegal, illegal….I was asked as a hypothetical –– hypothetically, hypothetically –– The laws are set now on abortion and that's the way they're going to remain until they're changed.”
Quote from Dawn Laguens, Executive Vice President of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund:
“The horrifying reality is that all of the Republican presidential candidates have the same position on access to abortion. This week, Donald Trump has simply said out loud what anti-abortion groups and politicians like John Kasich and Ted Cruz have been putting into practice: women and health care providers are being punished for having or providing safe, legal abortion.”
“The consequences of these unnecessary laws are not hypothetical, they are real. Women can lose their jobs, be forced to drive hundreds of miles, and, as we’re seeing in some places, take matters into their own hands, because of the draconian restrictions being enacted across the country.
“Donald Trump is dangerous, and so are these unnecessary abortion restrictions. These laws dismiss medicine and women’s health and safety for the sake of a political agenda.
Since 2011, states have passed nearly 300 laws restricting abortion,passing 57 in the past year alone. In states like Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, abortion has been so severely restricted it may as well be illegal for a large number of women. Women are driving hundreds of miles and in some instances across state lines just to access abortion safely and legally.
From the beginning of his presidential campaign, Trump has made racist comments and used incendiary rhetoric inciting violence against the African American, Muslim and immigrant communities. Now he is advocating for abortion restrictions that would disproportionately impactwomen of color.
In 2012, presidential candidate Mitt Romney wanted to ban abortion and defund Planned Parenthood, helping to lead to the greatest gender gap ever recorded –– with women of color overwhelmingly rejecting Romney’s position. The 2016 GOP field is the most extreme in recent history –– all three candidates would ban abortion, block patients from accessing care at Planned Parenthood, and block insurance coverage for birth control. The more they embrace this extreme agenda, the more they make themselves unelectable come November.