Donald Trump thinks women should be punished for abortion. At least, he did for a few hours, answering the question put to him by a journalist with all the shifty-eyed, stammering self-confidence of a man trying to work out how many abortions he might have paid for in the past. Then, after an appropriate period of public consternation, the Republican frontrunner backtracked, repeating the current party line that only people performing abortions should face jail time.
We’ve come to expect this. Trump wears hypocrisy as proudly as he wears his shocking hairdo. He doesn’t just flip-flop: he cartwheels and scissors like a teenage Russian gymnast, twisting into ridiculous knots of logic according to the public mood with a forward momentum that defies ridicule and demands applause. This time, he changed his tune because the American pro-life movement, whose votes he needs, jumped to dissociate themselves from Trump’s temporary platform shift. Pro-life organisations were quick to insist that they aren’t about punishing women, just about protecting life.
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