Businessman Donald Trump today announced that he is officially running for the Republican nomination for president. Trump has previously indicated he is pro-life on the issue of abortion.
“I am officially running for president of the United States and we are going to make our country great again,” Trump said in remarks this morning at New York City’s Trump Tower.
Trump’s entry into the race makes him the 12th Republican to seek the nomination, following pro-life former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who announced on Monday. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are other pro-life Republicans expected to join the crowded field.
Trump has indicated he is pro-life on abortion. Earlier this year, he repeated that.
“I’m pro-life and I have been pro-life,” Trump says. “It’s an issue and a strong issue.”
In 2011, Trump has said numerous times that he is pro-life on abortion and that he changed his views from supporting abortion to pro-life based on his relationships with close personal friends who had children. Their pregnancy experiences, Trump maintains, allowed him to mature on the abortion issue to the point of now opposing abortion.
In an interview with the Des Moines Register newspaper, Trump expanded on those comments.
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“If you look at it, I said, ‘It really, really troubles me, and it really, really bothers me, the whole concept of abortion.’ This was years ago, and even then it really bothered me, but I went on the other side of the line,” Trump said. “But in thinking about it over the years, I’ve had instances, and one instance in particular, a friend had a child who they were going to abort, and now they have it, and the child is incredible. And the man, he changed his views also because of that.”
“As I’ve grown older, as I’ve seen things happen in life, I’ve changed my views — and others have also,” he said.
Trump said he believes abortion should only be legal in the very rare cases when a woman is pregnant by rape or incest or when the life of the mother is jeopardized by the pregnancy.
“Ronald Reagan had the same basic stances I had, and I absolutely believe in the three instances” of exception, he said. “I hope that I can convince Iowans that I will be the best to save our country, and the fact is, I am pro-life.”
