{"id":13822,"date":"2016-03-31T14:33:03","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T14:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=13822"},"modified":"2016-03-31T14:33:03","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T14:33:03","slug":"abortion-tempest-erupts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=13822","title":{"rendered":"Abortion tempest erupts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Chalkboard<\/a><\/p>\n

Donald J. Trump finds himself in the middle of a tempest over arguably the most contentious political issue ever.<\/p>\n

Again!<\/em><\/p>\n

The Republican Party presidential primary frontrunner said Wednesday — in response to some aggressive questioning by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews — that a woman should face “some punishment” were she to obtain an illegal abortion.<\/p>\n

Yep. He said that. A woman should be punished.<\/p>\n

Then the firestorm erupted. What in the world is he talking about?<\/p>\n

Republican candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich were quick to condemn Trump’s statement. Then came the fury from Democratic candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n

Within a couple of hours, Trump issued a statement that said the doctor<\/em> should face the sanction, not the woman whose pregnancy was ended.<\/p>\n

I won’t bother you with a dissertation on my own views of abortion, as you perhaps already know I remain pro-choice on the issue.<\/p>\n

What is bothersome about Trump’s answer and then his recanting of his initial response is the non-preparedness the candidate keeps exhibiting when pressed for answers on these critical issues.<\/p>\n

Abortion matters deeply to many millions of Americans. It seems, to me at least, that few of us have mild feelings about the issue. We’re either fervently pro-choice or pro-life. Trump’s view on the issue has evolved over time. He is seen on videotape telling an interviewer about a decade ago that he is “strongly pro-choice.” Then he told Matthews this week that he is “pro-life.”<\/p>\n

I’d be curious to know what changed Trump’s view on this issue. How did he go from one firm position to another? Perhaps the only other major-party politician I can recall pulling such a dramatic switcheroo would be George H.W. Bush, who abandoned his pro-choice views immediately<\/em> upon accepting Ronald Reagan’s invitation to join him on the GOP presidential ticket in 1980.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump initial answer to the question of whether a woman should face punishment reveals what\u00a0Sen. Cruz identified correctly as Trump’s utter lack of preparation to discuss these issues when confronted with them.<\/p>\n

Somehow, though, I cannot escape the feeling that Trump will find a way to deny he ever said what millions of Americans already heard him say.<\/p>\n

Most disturbing of all will be that many Americans will believe him.<\/p>\n

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  Donald J. Trump finds himself in the middle of a tempest over arguably the most contentious political issue ever. Again! The Republican Party presidential primary frontrunner said Wednesday — in response to some aggressive questioning by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews — that a woman should face “some punishment” were she to obtain an illegal abortion. … Continue reading Abortion tempest erupts<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13,14,15],"tags":[122,597,969,1424,1892,2139,2537,3155,4017,4537],"class_list":["post-13822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical-news","category-national-news","category-political-news","category-religious-news","tag-abortion","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-chris-matthews","tag-donald-trump","tag-george-hw-bush","tag-hillary-clinton","tag-john-kasich","tag-msnbc","tag-ronald-reagan","tag-ted-cruz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13822"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13825,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13822\/revisions\/13825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}