Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Wednesday slammed her Republican rival Donald Trump over his calls for defunding America’s largest abortion provider ‘Planned Parenthood’, saying she will defend women’s rights to make their own healthcare decisions.

“Donald has said he is in favour of defunding ‘Planned Parenthood’ He even supported shutting the government down to defund ‘Planned Parenthood’ I will defend ‘Planned Parenthood’ I will defend Roe V Wade and I will defend women’s rights to make their own healthcare decisions,” Ms. Clinton, 68, said at the third and final presidential debate.

“We have come too far to have that turned back now. And, indeed, he said women should be punished, that there should be some form of punishment for women who obtain abortions. And I could just not be more opposed to that kind of thinking,” she alleged.

Ms. Clinton said she strongly supports constitutional right to a woman to make the most intimate, most difficult, in many cases, decisions about her healthcare that one can imagine.

“So many states are putting very stringent regulations on women that block them from exercising that choice to the extent that they are defunding ‘Planned Parenthood’, which, of course, provides all kinds of cancer screenings and other benefits for women in our country,” she said.

Mr. Trump, 70, meanwhile, said the views of Ms. Clinton is terrible.

“If you go with what Hillary is saying, in the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby,” he said.

“Now, you can say that is OK and Hillary can say that is OK. But it is not OK with me, because based on what she is saying and based on where she is going and where she has been, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month on the final day. And that is not acceptable.

“You should meet with some of the women that I have met with, women I have known over the course of my life. This is one of the worst possible choices that any woman and her family has to make. And I do not believe the government should be making it,” Mr. Trump said.

Ms. Clinton said, “I have had the great honour of travelling across the world on behalf of our country. I have been to countries where governments either forced women to have abortions, like they used to do in China, or forced women to bear children, like they used to do in Romania.

“I can tell you, the government has no business in the decisions that women make with their families in accordance with their faith, with medical advice. And I will stand up for that right,” she added.