Republished October 05, 2016 - 6:00 AM
Original Publication Date October 04, 2016 - 8:35 PM
WASHINGTON - TIM KAINE: "We do not think that women should be punished as Donald Trump said they should for making the decision to have an abortion....That is the fundamental difference between a Clinton-Kaine ticket and a Trump-Pence ticket that wants to punish women."
MIKE PENCE: "It's really not. Donald Trump and I would never support legislation that punished women who made the heartbreaking choice to end a pregnancy."
Pence told Kaine that Trump "is not a polished politician like you and Hillary Clinton. Things don't always come out the way he means them."
THE FACTS: Trump said earlier this year that there should be "some form of punishment" for women who get abortions if the procedure is outlawed.
Trump later backed off that remark under fierce criticism, saying that if abortion were no longer legal, doctors who perform abortions should be penalized for performing the procedure — not the women who have it.
Trump later shifted again, saying about abortion: "The laws are set. And I think we have to leave it that way."
While Trump supported abortion rights in his younger years, he now says he is staunchly "pro-life," aside from exemptions in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at risk. Pence is a strong foe of abortion.
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Contributed by Associated Press writer Matthew Daly.
News from © The Associated Press, 2016