Ben Carson: Woman Having Abortion Like a Slave Owner

Ben Carson said today that he opposed abortion even in cases of rape and incest—and compared women seeking abortions to slave-owners mistreating their slaves, the New York Times reports. On Meet the Press, discussing women impregnated by rape or incest, Carson referred to "the many stories of people who have led very useful lives who were the result of rape or incest." He would only consider exceptions when "people can come up with a reasonable explanation of why they would like to kill a baby," he says, per NBC News. "That's an extraordinarily rare situation. But if in that very rare situation it occurred, I believe there's room to discuss that." About slavery, he put it this way:

• "During slavery, a lot of the slave owners thought that they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave. Anything that they chose to do. And, you know, what if the abolitionist had said, you know, 'I don’t believe in slavery. I think it’s wrong. But you guys do whatever you want to do.' Where would we be?"

Carson also defended his references to Nazism when discussing ObamaCare, saying he has "heard from many people in the Jewish community, including rabbis, who said, 'You’re spot on. You are exactly right.'" Meanwhile, one poll has him leading Donald Trump in Iowa by 9 points and another by 8 points. (More Ben Carson 2016 stories.)