If you're angry at Donald Trump, maybe you've forgotten women really are punished for abortion in the UK

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Is Donald Trump wobbling? The billionaire mogul has, to date, powered his campaign on a steady stream of aggression and machismo. Attacking Mexicans worked. Attacking Black Lives Matter protestors worked. Attacking Muslims worked. But even Mr Trump’s white, male and furious support-base appears to have misgivings about “punishing” women who seek abortions.

Just hours after suggesting America follow the lead of countries like El Salvador, where women can be transported directly from the hospital to prison, Mr Trump performed a U-turn – humbled, for once, by the backlash. In terms of the Wisconsin primary, it may already be too late.

Polls there now show Mr Trump trailing his rival Ted Cruz by as much as ten points. The Republican Party’s Stop Trump brigade has – for the first time – pulled together, with Governor Scott Walker endorsing Mr Cruz, and right-wing radio hosts taking chunks out of the Donald on the airwaves. All claim to be entirely shocked by Republican front-runner’s comments on abortion.

In reality, Mr Trump’s view that “some form of punishment” is necessary to prevent women seeking abortions amounts to little more than another illustration of his willingness to speak before he thinks. For any punishment to be meted out, the Supreme Court would have to revisit Roe v Wade, and make abortion illegal. That is not going to happen.

And much as Republicans may profess to be aghast at Mr Trump, he has only shouted what many inside the GOP whisper. The party has realised that talk of “punishing” women is a vote-loser, but that has not stopped delegates making the lives of women who want abortions harder, wherever it has been possible. Many states now prevent abortion coverage under comprehensive private insurance plans. Since 2010, when the Republicans took over 11 state legislatures (bringing their total to 26), Conservative lawmakers have passed 205 anti-abortion restrictions.

This is not the same as sending women to prison, of course. But some might consider the imposition of an unwanted pregnancy equally grave.

It might be said, in fact, that Mr Trump simply followed through on his party’s stated belief that abortion is murder. More moderate party leaders say that doctors, not women, should be the ones who feel the wrath of the law for carrying out such operations (and this is the position to which Mr Trump retreated).

But again the suspicion remains that electoral mathematics, not compassion, drives such compromise. Over the course of their lifetime, three in 10 American women will have an abortion: many feel punished, daily, by the stream of invective, regulation and fear-mongering that issues from one half of the political landscape.

There has been a measure of complacency in the response to Mr Trump’s comments within the UK. They have been taken as yet another example of lunacy on America’s right. Broadly, it has been overlooked that Mr Trump’s momentary proposal represents the current state of affairs in Northern Ireland. Women who seek abortions there can face up to 14 years in prison. All the anger at Mr Trump’s words within these shores should be diverted to where it can do some good – in pushing reform in Belfast.

Lambasting the Republican Party’s descent into misogynistic barbarism is all very well. But this nation includes a territory that puts Mr Trump’s words into practice.

Unlike Mr Trump, the system in Northern Ireland goes about its business as quietly as possible. That does not make it any less dangerous: quite the reverse. It may in fact explain why such a travesty of justice remains in place to this day.