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Here’s the interview where Doug Mastriano said women should be charged with murder if they get an abortion

  • Jeremy Long/WITF
State Senator Doug Mastriano appears on Smart Talk November 14, 2019.

 Smart Talk

State Senator Doug Mastriano appears on Smart Talk November 14, 2019.

In 2019 when state Sen. Doug Mastriano was in his first term, he cosponsored a bill that would ban an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. 

Mastriano appeared on WITF’s Smart Talk and discussed the proposed bill with host Scott LaMar. 

When LaMar pressed Mastriano about whether women should be charged with murder if they violated such a ban, Mastriano replied, “yes.”  He said a fetus “deserves equal protection under the law.”

Mastriano also said abortion providers should be charged with murder. 

Mastriano is now the Republican nominee for governor, and his comments from that interview are in the news again this week after NBC News and other national media published stories about them.

Here is what Mastriano said when Lamar asked if a woman should be charged with murder if she had an illegal abortion.

Mastriano’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

More recently, in an interview on Sept. 26 with David Brody, host of The Water Cooler on Real America’s Voice News,  Mastriano downplayed the importance of his personal views on abortion and said his opponent Josh Shaprio is “the radical on abortion…who thinks it’s OK to kill a baby up to birth.”

“My views are kind of irrelevant,” he said. “I cannot rule by fiat or edict or executive order on the issue of life. It’s up the people of Pennsylvania. If Pennsylvanians want exceptions, they want to the limit the number of weeks it’s going to have to go through the legislative body and come to my desk.”

 

Mastriano has said he supports new limitations, pledging to sign a “Heartbeat bill” that would ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy without exception.

Jenna Ellis, a senior advisor to Mastriano’s campaign, said in a Tweet on Sept. 27, Mastriano was right in his comments. 

“Leftists melting down today because Doug Mastriano said abortion is murder. He is right – scientifically and morally. Abortion is a medical intervention specifically intended to kill a human child.”

Listen to the full interview here: 

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