Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Wednesday that he believes abortion should be allowed "under no circumstances," but added that it "gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make."
"I believe that life begins at conception," Cain told CNN's Piers Morgan. "And abortion under no circumstances."
"If one of your female children, grand children was raped, you would honestly want her to bring up that baby as her own?" Morgan asked.
"You're mixing two things here, Piers," Cain objected. "It comes down to it's not the government's role or anybody else's role to make that decision. Secondly, if you look at the statistical incidents, you're not talking about that big a number. So what I'm saying is it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make."
"By expressing the view that you expressed, you are effectively -- you might be president," Morgan noted. "You can't hide behind now the mask, if you don't mind me saying, of being the pizza guy. You might be the president of United States of America. So your views on these things become exponentially massively more important. They become a directive to the nation."
"No they don't," Cain disagreed. "I can have an opinion on an issue without it being a directive on the nation. The government shouldn't be trying to tell people everything to do, especially when it comes to social decisions that they need to make."
The former Godfather's Pizza CEO also reiterated that he believes homosexuality is a sin and a choice.
"I think it's a sin because of my biblical beliefs and although people don't agree with me, I happen to think that it is a choice," he said.
"You genuinely believe millions of Americans wake up in their late teens normally and go, you know what, I quite fancy being a homosexual?" Morgan wondered. "You don't believe that."
"OK, so it's your gut instinct against my gut instinct. It's a wash. It's a push," Cain insisted. "That being said, I respect their right to make that choice. You don't see me bashing them or anything like that. I respect their right to make that choice. I don't have to agree with it. That's all I'm saying."
