Carson knows when life begins — at conception — as he said in an interview on Sunday’s “Meet the Press”:

CHUCK TODD: Does life begin at conception?

DR. BEN CARSON: I believe it does.

CHUCK TODD: Does that mean, whose right, I guess, should be superseded? The mother or the unborn child? Whose rights, who has greater rights?

DR. BEN CARSON: In the ideal situation, the mother should not believe that the baby is her enemy and should not be looking to terminate the baby. You know, things are set up in such a way that the person in the world who has the greatest interest in protecting the baby is the mother. We’ve allowed the purveyors of the division to make mothers think that that baby is their enemy and that they have a right to kill it. Can you see how perverted that line of thinking is?

CHUCK TODD: What if somebody has an unwanted pregnancy? Should they have the right to terminate?

DR. BEN CARSON: No. Think about this. During slavery– and I know that’s one of those words you’re not supposed to say, but I’m saying it. 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?

CHUCK TODD: Definitively, do you want to see Roe v. Wade overturned?

DR. BEN CARSON: Ultimately, I would love to see it overturned.

CHUCK TODD: And that means all abortions illegal? Or is there still an exception that you would have?

DR. BEN CARSON: I’m a reasonable person. And if people can come up with a reasonable explanation of why they would like to kill a baby, I’ll listen.

CHUCK TODD: Life and health of the mother?

DR. BEN CARSON: Again, that’s an extraordinarily rare situation. But if in that very rare situation it occurred, I believe there’s room to discuss that.

CHUCK TODD: Rape and incest?

DR. BEN CARSON: Rape and incest, I would not be in favor of killing a baby because the baby came about in that way. And all you have to do is go and look up the many stories of people who have led very useful lives who were the result of rape or incest.

Thomas Valentine is a researcher for the American Principles Project and a junior at the Franciscan University of Steubenville.