Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson joined the hosts of The View on Tuesday and found himself at odds with some of the hosts for his position on abortion.
Hutchinson, who served two terms as the governor of Arkansas, signed a near-total ban on the procedure in 2021, with an exception to save the life of the mother in an emergency.
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The law didn't include carve-outs for incest or rape.
Sunny Hostin noted that Hutchinson had expressed some disagreement with the law but signed it anyway.
Asked why, he said, "I signed it because there was vast support for it. The only difference I would have made is I would have preferred to have the exceptions of rape and incest. I believe that those are important exceptions, along with the life of the mother."
Hutchinson said he is "doubtful that there will be a national standard" on abortion after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Supreme Court ruling returned the matter to individual states.
Hostin further pressed him, claiming that the majority of United States citizens support abortion rights.
"You can look at other polling information in which they support reasonable restrictions on abortion if there are reasonable exceptions," he responded. "That’s where I am.
"If you look at a national policy, that’s where it should be. I think that’s what the American public would support," he added.
The same poll cited by Hostin, which shows 61% of Americans claiming to support abortion rights, also shows that more Americans support restrictions earlier in pregnancy than support the procedure at any time. According to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist National Poll last month, one out of four respondents believe abortion should be restricted at three months.
The same amount believes that it should only be allowed in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.
Only 12% think it should be restricted at six months, and just 22% say it should be available throughout the entire pregnancy.
Whoopi Goldberg then chimed in: "This is the thing I don’t understand. It is magnificent that you do believe that. I love that Sunny has her convictions. I love your convictions. But as someone who does not believe as you do in America, I should be able to say — without getting pushed around because I don’t believe — that it is my right to decide what to do with my body and my family.
"Why is the state involved?" she further prompted Hutchinson.
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"That is the debate. Whenever you look at cases of rape and incest, for example, those are where the conception is done by a criminal offense. That is obviously — should be the choice of the woman and not where the state is involved. And so that’s where the debate is on those exceptions," he said.
Hutchinson is currently polling at 0% support among potential Republican primary voters, per Morning Consult. The field is being led by former President Donald Trump at 58% and newly announced candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) at 20%.