Donald Trump Said Women Should Be Punished For Getting Abortions. They Already Are.

Anti-abortion groups tried to distance themselves from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday after he said in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that abortion should be banned and that there should be "some form of punishment" for patients who receive the procedure. Trump’s comments were out of step with what other Republicans have said about abortion -- namely, that the doctors who perform the procedure are the ones who should be punished, rather than the patients who undergo it. Anti-abortion groups often argue that patients who get the procedure do so out of desperation and regret it later. It's uncommon to hear them say that patients themselves ought to be charged or otherwise penalized. Trump, for his part, walked back his comments in a public statement later that day (while also denying that he was walking anything back). But the punitive spirit of his initial remarks is wholly of a piece with the types of abortion restrictions that Republicans have already backed in Congress and in state legislatures. Dictionary definitions of "punishment" include “severe, rough, or disastrous treatment” and “suffering, pain, or loss that serves as retribution,” all of which seem like fair ways to characterize many of the rules that already exist. Republicans know they can’t flat-out prevent patients from obtaining abortions -- at least not with the current president and Supreme Court -- so t...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news