Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016/Abortion

Donald Trump announced his presidential run on June 16, 2015.

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This page was current as of the 2016 election.

Abortion remained a contentious issue in the United States in 2016, with 56 percent of Americans supporting its legalization in most cases and 41 percent in opposition. After the Center for Medical Progress released a series of secretly recorded videos in 2015 that showed employees of Planned Parenthood discussing research conducted on aborted fetal tissue—videos that Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards called "heavily edited" and "fraudulent"—abortion came to the forefront in the presidential election.

Questions about the legality of abortion in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother's life, regulation of abortion clinics, and defunding Planned Parenthood were all disputed in 2016.

See below what Donald Trump and the 2016 Republican Party Platform said about abortion.

CANDIDATE SUMMARY

Trump was anti-abortion, with rape, incest, and life of the mother exceptions.

He supported overturning Roe v. Wade and defunding Planned Parenthood.

Trump on abortion

• On September 19, 2016, Donald Trump announced that he had appointed Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, as the chair of his national “Pro-Life Coalition.” In a letter to anti-abortion leaders, Trump announced the appointment and outlined his views on abortion, which included “Nominating pro-life justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, signing into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act … defunding Planned Parenthood … making the Hyde Amendment permanent law.”

• The New York Times Magazine published a profile of Trump on May 18, 2016, covering the changes in his presidential campaign over several months. Trump discussed his statement that women should be punished for having abortions. He said, “I didn’t mean punishment for women like prison. I’m saying women punish themselves. I didn’t want people to think in terms of ‘prison’ punishment. And because of that I walked it back.”

• Trump said on April 21, 2016, that he would “absolutely” change the Republican Party platform opposing abortion to include exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.

• During a town hall on March 30, 2016, hosted by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Trump said that “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who have abortions if abortion is criminalized. Shortly after the remarks were made public, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks released the following statement from Trump: “This issue is unclear and should be put back into the states for determination. Like Ronald Reagan, I am pro-life with exceptions, which I have outlined numerous times." Trump issued a second statement on Wednesday evening, stating, "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.”

• On December 1, 2015, Donald Trump said that as president he would defund Planned Parenthood and look at overturning Roe v. Wade. He said, “The other, you’re gonna need a lot of Supreme Court justices, but we’re gonna be looking at that very, very carefully, but you need a lot of Supreme Court judges. But defund yes, we’re going to be doing a lot of that.”

• During an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press on November 29, 2015, Trump dismissed the idea that the current debate about Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue practices caused a man to murder individuals at a Colorado Planned Parenthood, instead calling the tragedy the act of a mentally disturbed individual. He said, “I think it's terrible. I mean, terrible. It's more of the same. And I think it's a terrible thing. He's a maniac. I think he's a sick person. And I think he was probably a person ready to go. We don't even know the purpose. I mean, he hasn't come out, to the best of my knowledge, with a statement as to why it happened to be at that location. ...This was a man who they said prior to this was mentally disturbed. So, he's a mentally disturbed person. There's no question about that.”

• Trump also commented on edited, undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress that show individuals associated with Planned Parenthood discussing the procedures and sale of aborted fetal tissue. He said, “Well, I will tell you there is a tremendous group of people that think it's terrible, all of the videos that they've seen with some of these people from Planned Parenthood talking about it like you're selling parts to a car. I mean, there are a lot of people that are very unhappy about that. I see a lot of anxiety and I see a lot of dislike for Planned Parenthood. There's no question about that.”

• In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press" on August 16, 2015, Donald Trump said there should be three exceptions to abortion: “Rape, incest, if the mother is going to die.”

• In a 2011 interview with David Brody of CBN News, Donald Trump said he changed his stance on abortion rights after speaking directly with people who considered an abortion. He explained, "One thing about me, I'm a very honorable guy. I'm pro-life, but I changed my view a number of years ago. One of the reasons I changed—one of the primary reasons—a friend of mine's wife was pregnant, in this case married. She was pregnant and he didn't really want the baby. And he was telling me the story. He was crying as he was telling me the story. He ends up having the baby and the baby is the apple of his eye. It's the greatest thing that's ever happened to him. And you know here's a baby that wasn't going to be let into life. And I heard this, and some other stories, and I am pro-life."

• In his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, Trump wrote, "I support a woman’s right to choose, but I am uncomfortable with the procedures. When Tim Russert asked me on Meet the Press if I would ban partial-birth abortion, my pro-choice instincts led me to say no. After the show, I consulted two doctors I respect and, upon learning more about this procedure, I have concluded that I would support a ban."

• Trump supported abortion rights in 1999, according to a 2011 article in National Journal. At the time, Trump said, "I hate the concept of abortion, but I am strongly pro-choice." He also expressed a desire to see "the abortion issue removed from politics" because "it is a personal decision that should be left to the women and their doctors."
• Read what other 2016 presidential candidates said about abortion.

The 2016 Republican Party Platform on abortion

“ The Fifth Amendment: Protecting Human Life The Constitution’s guarantee that no one can “be deprived of life, liberty or property” deliberately echoes the Declaration of Independence’s proclamation that “all” are “endowed by their Creator” with the inalienable right to life. Accordingly, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth. We oppose the use of public funds to perform or promote abortion or to fund organizations, like Planned Parenthood, so long as they provide or refer for elective abortions or sell fetal body parts rather than provide healthcare. We urge all states and Congress to make it a crime to acquire, transfer, or sell fetal tissues from elective abortions for research, and we call on Congress to enact a ban on any sale of fetal body parts. In the meantime, we call on Congress to ban the practice of misleading women on so-called fetal harvesting consent forms, a fact revealed by a 2015 investigation. We will not fund or subsidize healthcare that includes abortion coverage. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life. We oppose the non-consensual withholding or withdrawal of care or treatment, including food and water, from individuals with disabilities, newborns, the elderly, or the infirm, just as we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide. We affirm our moral obligation to assist, rather than penalize, women who face an unplanned pregnancy. In order to encourage women who face an unplanned pregnancy to choose life, we support legislation that requires financial responsibility for the child be equally borne by both the mother and father upon conception until the child reaches adulthood. Failure to require a father to be equally responsible for a child places an inequitable burden on the mother, creating a financial and social hardship on both mother and child. We celebrate the millions of Americans who open their hearts, homes, and churches to mothers in need and women fleeing abuse. We thank and encourage providers of counseling, medical services, and adoption assistance for empowering women experiencing an unintended pregnancy to choose life. We support funding for ultrasounds and adoption assistance. We salute the many states that now protect women and girls through laws requiring informed consent, parental consent, waiting periods, and clinic regulation. We condemn the Supreme Court’s activist decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt striking down commonsense Texas laws providing for basic health and safety standards in abortion clinics. We applaud the U.S. House of Representatives for leading the effort to add enforcement to the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act by passing the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which imposes appropriate civil and criminal penalties on healthcare providers who fail to provide treatment and care to an infant who survives an abortion, including early induction delivery whether the death of the infant is intended. We strongly oppose infanticide. Over a dozen states have passed Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Acts prohibiting abortion after twenty weeks, the point at which current medical research shows that unborn babies can feel excruciating pain during abortions, and we call on Congress to enact the federal version. Not only is it good legislation, but it enjoys the support of a majority of the American people. We support state and federal efforts against the cruelest forms of abortion, especially dismemberment abortion procedures, in which unborn babies are literally torn apart limb from limb. We call on Congress to ban sex-selection abortions and abortions based on disabilities — discrimination in its most lethal form. We oppose embryonic stem cell research. We oppose federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. We support adult stem cell research and urge the restoration of the national placental stem cell bank created by President George H.W. Bush but abolished by his Democrat successor, President Bill Clinton. We oppose federal funding for harvesting embryos and call for a ban on human cloning. The Democratic Party is extreme on abortion. Democrats’ almost limitless support for abortion, and their strident opposition to even the most basic restrictions on abortion, put them dramatically out of step with the American people. Because of their opposition to simple abortion clinic safety procedures, support for taxpayer-funded abortion, and rejection of pregnancy resource centers that provide abortion alternatives, the old Clinton mantra of “safe, legal, and rare” has been reduced to just “legal.” We are proud to be the party that protects human life and offers real solutions for women. ”

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Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016/Abortion - Google News

See also

• Donald Trump
• Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016