{"id":91283,"date":"2016-03-31T14:11:22","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T18:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=91283"},"modified":"2016-04-01T14:48:13","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T18:48:13","slug":"pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-lifers leaders push back on Trump’s statement that women should be punished for abortions"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Since running for president, Donald Trump has claimed to be pro-life, something that some\u00a0people don’t truly believe. He continually praises Planned Parenthood<\/a>, and has ‘joked’ that\u00a0his pro-abortion extremist sister would make a “terrific” Supreme Court justice<\/a>. Previously, he supported partial-birth abortion<\/a>. He claims to have “evolved” and changed his mind about abortion. But his latest comments on abortion have stunned\u00a0people across the country, both pro-life and pro-abortion.<\/p>\n

While being interviewed by Chris Matthews for an MSNBC townhall, Trump was asked if women seeking abortions should be “punished” should abortion become illegal. At first, Trump waffled on the question, saying, \u201cLook, people in certain parts of the Republican Party, conservative Republicans, would say, \u2018Yes, it should.'” The back-and-forth went on like that, with Trump avoiding the question, until this happened…<\/p>\n

[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sQfJpTUYr2Q&w=480&h=360]<\/p>\n

\n

Matthews:<\/strong> Do you believe in punishment for abortion? Yes or no?<\/p>\n

Trump:<\/strong> The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment.<\/p>\n

Matthews: For the woman?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Trump:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The outrage was swift and immediate. People of all political stripes immediately condemned his remarks, including the March for Life<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

“Mr. Trump\u2019s 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,\u201d said Jeanne Mancini, President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing pro-life means wanting what is best for the mother and the baby. Women who choose abortion often do so in desperation and then deeply regret such a decision. 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.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So loud was the opposition to what he said, that he recanted almost immediately<\/a>. At first, he said that the issue was “unclear” and should go “back to the states for determination”; then he released a second statement saying that women were the victims in the situation and the abortion provider should be charged instead.<\/p>\n

\"levatino-ad-LAN\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some\u00a0pro-lifers pointed out that, with one offhand remark, Donald Trump may have undermined\u00a0pro-life\u00a0attempts\u00a0to reach out to women seeking abortion, as well as post-abortive women, with love and understanding. For decades, the pro-life movement has\u00a0been stalwart on the belief that abortionists, not the women getting abortions, should be prosecuted. Live Action president Lila Rose responded to Trump’s remarks as well:<\/p>\n

\n

The law must protect the lives of children in the womb.\u00a0 The abortion industry should be shut down and any abortionist who commits abortions should be held accountable for his crimes against women and children.<\/p>\n

As for the women who are facing crisis pregnancies, the focus should be on supporting them and their preborn children with pre- and post-natal care and adoption services.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0Pro-abortion activists have, for years, falsely\u00a0insisted\u00a0that pro-lifers want women who abort to\u00a0be punished, and that we only care about the babies and hate women. Some pro-lifers have speculated that\u00a0this may be why Trump said what he did: because he’s not actually pro-life,\u00a0but he’s trying to say what he thinks<\/em>\u00a0pro-lifers believe. This is even the\u00a0conclusion\u00a0<\/span>of pro-choice columnist Charles Krauthammer<\/a>, who chalked up Trump’s comments to a “lack of curiosity”:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“Anybody who\u2019s been on this issue who knows the pro-life community, who knows what the arguments are and what people really believe, knows that is not true. That is not the position of anybody on the pro-life side,\u201d Krauthammer said. \u201cThat is the position that the pro-choice people attribute \u2014 this kind of hard-heartedness \u2014 to the pro-life side. And that\u2019s apparently what Trump imbibed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Regardless of what Trump’s motivations were for saying what he did, Krauthammer is right: it’s not what the vast majority of\u00a0pro-lifers – who have consistently spoken about how abortion harms women – believe.<\/p>\n

The pro-life movement\u00a0advocates for compassion, understanding, and love toward\u00a0the\u00a0women who are victimized by abortionists who prey on and exploit them when they are at their most vulnerable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since running for president, Donald Trump has claimed to be pro-life, something that some\u00a0people don’t truly believe. He continually praises Planned Parenthood, and has ‘joked’ that\u00a0his pro-abortion extremist sister would make a “terrific” Supreme Court justice. Previously, he supported partial-birth abortion. He claims to have “evolved” and changed his mind about abortion. But his latest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":86544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[19,496,8112,3885,38,7138,2438,243,296,2437,8114,8113],"yoast_head":"\nPro-lifers condemn Trump's claim that women should be punished for abortions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For decades, the pro-life movement has been stalwart on the belief that abortionists, not the women getting abortions, should be prosecuted.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pro-lifers condemn Trump's claim that women should be punished for abortions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For decades, the pro-life movement has been stalwart on the belief that abortionists, not the women getting abortions, should be prosecuted.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-31T18:11:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-01T18:48:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/trump.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"672\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"323\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cassy Cooke\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392\"},\"headline\":\"Pro-lifers leaders push back on Trump’s statement that women should be punished for abortions\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-31T18:11:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-01T18:48:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/\"},\"wordCount\":708,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"abortion\",\"Cassy Fiano\",\"Chris Matthews\",\"Donald Trump\",\"elections\",\"Jeanne Mancini\",\"Live Action News\",\"March for Life\",\"MSNBC\",\"news\",\"punishment\",\"townhall\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Analysis\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/\",\"name\":\"Pro-lifers condemn Trump's claim that women should be punished for abortions\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-31T18:11:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-01T18:48:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"For decades, the pro-life movement has been stalwart on the belief that abortionists, not the women getting abortions, should be prosecuted.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pro-lifers leaders push back on Trump’s statement that women should be punished for abortions\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392\",\"name\":\"Cassy Cooke\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cassy Cooke\"},\"description\":\"Cassy has over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, most of which have been spent covering pro-life issues like abortion, disability rights, euthanasia, and more.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/cassy-fiano\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pro-lifers condemn Trump's claim that women should be punished for abortions","description":"For decades, the pro-life movement has been stalwart on the belief that abortionists, not the women getting abortions, should be prosecuted.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pro-lifers condemn Trump's claim that women should be punished for abortions","og_description":"For decades, the pro-life movement has been stalwart on the belief that abortionists, not the women getting abortions, should be prosecuted.","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2016-03-31T18:11:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-04-01T18:48:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":672,"height":323,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/trump.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cassy Cooke","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cassy Cooke","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/"},"author":{"name":"Cassy Cooke","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392"},"headline":"Pro-lifers leaders push back on Trump’s statement that women should be punished for abortions","datePublished":"2016-03-31T18:11:22+00:00","dateModified":"2016-04-01T18:48:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/"},"wordCount":708,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"keywords":["abortion","Cassy Fiano","Chris Matthews","Donald Trump","elections","Jeanne Mancini","Live Action News","March for Life","MSNBC","news","punishment","townhall"],"articleSection":["Analysis"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/","name":"Pro-lifers condemn Trump's claim that women should be punished for abortions","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-03-31T18:11:22+00:00","dateModified":"2016-04-01T18:48:13+00:00","description":"For decades, the pro-life movement has been stalwart on the belief that abortionists, not the women getting abortions, should be prosecuted.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-lifers-react-to-trumps-claim-that-women-should-be-punished-for-abortions\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pro-lifers leaders push back on Trump’s statement that women should be punished for abortions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392","name":"Cassy Cooke","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cassy Cooke"},"description":"Cassy has over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, most of which have been spent covering pro-life issues like abortion, disability rights, euthanasia, and more.","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/cassy-fiano\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91283"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91465,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91283\/revisions\/91465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}