Just when you thought Donald Trump couldn’t say anything more shocking, he suggested that women who get abortions should be punished.
On MSNBC, he said abortion must be banned and then “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who manage to get abortions.
He declined to say what the punishment should be, dodging a question about whether it should be “10 years” in prison or something milder.
After the TV interview was over and the backlash had begun, Trump tried to back off his comment, saying in a statement, “The doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman.”
One lesson is that Trump is an uninformed opportunist, but the episode does highlight two basic problems for the anti-abortion movement.