Doug Mastriano said in 2019 that women who violate an abortion ban should be charged with murder

Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor, suggested in 2019 that women who violated the abortion ban he proposed should be charged with murder, a position considered far outside the political mainstream.

In a radio interview with WITF, Mastriano — a state senator — was asked about legislation he introduced that would ban abortion after ultrasound screening picks up an embryo’s cardiac activity, which can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, and before many are aware they’re pregnant. The bill did not include any exceptions for rape, incest, or health.

The interviewer, Scott LaMar, asked Mastriano whether a woman who obtained an abortion at 10 weeks’ gestation should “be charged with murder.” Mastriano responded: “Is that a human being? Is that a little boy or girl? If it is, it deserves equal protection in the law.”

LaMar pressed him, asking: “So you’re saying yes?” to which Mastriano replied: “Yes, I am.”

Mastriano’s campaign does not generally respond to requests for comment from mainstream media organizations.

But hours after the interview resurfaced, his campaign adviser Jenna Ellis tweeted: “Leftists melting down today because Doug Mastriano said abortion is murder. He is right — scientifically and morally.” Mastriano retweeted her post.

NBC News first reported Mastriano’s comments, which had gone uncovered as he runs for governor.

Abortion has become a key issue in the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat who has on several occasions vetoed bills advanced by the GOP-controlled legislature that would further restrict the procedure in Pennsylvania. Since the June overturning of Roe v. Wade, Republicans in Harrisburg have signaled they would favor changing current law, which generally allows for abortion to be performed through about 24 weeks into pregnancy.

» READ MORE: Josh Shapiro and Doug Mastriano's records on abortion could hardly be more divergent

Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee, has positioned himself as the last line of defense and vowed to strike down any provision restricting abortion in the state. He’s said he supports the current law, and has described Mastriano’s position on abortion as “out of step” with most Pennsylvania voters.

Mastriano, on the other hand, has said that if he becomes governor, he’d work “with alacrity” to pass the legislation he introduced as a state senator. Proponents of the legislation — which never passed — call it a “heartbeat bill,” but most physicians consider that to be a misnomer. It was the first bill Mastriano introduced as a lawmaker.

During a spring debate among candidates running in the Republican primary, Mastriano said abortion was his “No. 1 issue” and that “there is no greater issue in our generation than a right to life.” He said during the same debate that he would support criminal penalties for doctors who perform abortions.

Mastriano on some occasions through the general election campaign shifted his tone, calling the issue a “distraction” and putting the onus on voters. In July, he said during an interview on conservative talk radio that: “In many ways, my personal views are irrelevant in the effect that I can’t do anything with abortion because it’s codified in law.”

But since then, he’s on several occasions doubled down. Earlier this month, he attended the March For Life, an antiabortion rally, in Harrisburg and told the crowd that abortion is “the single most important issue, I think, in our lifetime.”