Trump: ‘Laws are set’ on abortion

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump appeared to change his stance on abortion again on Friday, saying that he thinks abortion laws should remain as they are.

{mosads}In an excerpt of an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Trump was asked how he thinks abortion laws should be changed.

“The laws are set now on abortion, and that’s the way they’re going to remain until they’re changed,” he said, adding that he would have preferred the issue to be left up to the states.

“At this moment the laws are set,” he said. “And I think we have to leave it that way.”

But Trump was also pressed about identifying as “pro-life” and whether he believes abortion is murder. At first Trump said, “I have my opinions on it, but I’d rather not comment on it.”

He told host John Dickerson that he doesn’t disagree with the stance that abortion is murder and considers himself “pro-life.”

The Trump camp quickly defended the interview clip and said he was talking about the laws as they stand currently. 

“Mr. Trump gave an accurate account of the law as it is today and made clear it must stay that way now–until he is President. Then he will change the law through his judicial appointments and allow the states to protect the unborn,” spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in a statement. “There is nothing new or different here.”

Trump this week revised his stance on abortion several times.

On Tuesday, he said that if abortions were banned, women should be punished for getting one. He later tried to walk back the comments in a pair of statements, first saying that he thinks abortion laws should be left up to the states and then saying and that only people who perform illegal abortions should be punished, not the women who receive them.

Trump has said that he has “evolved” on the issue of abortion in recent years. Since the start of his presidential campaign, he has seemed to support a ban on abortion except in cases of rape, incest or the health of the mother. 

When asked on MSNBC this week what an abortion ban would look like, Trump responded: “Well, you go back to a position like they had where they would perhaps go to illegal places, but we have to ban it.”

Trump has received heavy criticism from both sides of the abortion debate this week for his comments, and his GOP rivlas have previously bashed him for his change in opinion over the years.

The full CBS interview is set to air Sunday.