Former first lady Melania Trump spoke out about her pro-abortion views in a short clip promoting her upcoming memoir, saying “there is no room for compromise” on the issue of women being allowed to abort their unborn children.
Melania said she has “carried” her pro-abortion views “throughout [her] entire adult life,” a break from her husband’s pro-life record while he was in office. Her remarks on abortion come less than five weeks before the 2024 election as Democrats are focusing on the issue to motivate their base.
https://t.co/ZCTwZSqZND pic.twitter.com/Y9MT3uj97b
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) October 3, 2024
Paragraphs of Melania’s memoir published by The Guardian on Wednesday go into more detail on her support for abortion.
“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes,” Melania writes, adding, “Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body. I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”
Melania is not the only first lady to disagree with her Republican husband’s views on abortion. Daily Wire host Michael Knowles pointed out on X, “It is a sad, strange fact of history that, for as long as abortion has been a major public issue, every Republican FLOTUS has supported it.”
Former President George W. Bush’s wife Laura said in 2010 that she supported Roe v. Wade remaining the law in the U.S., and during George H.W. Bush’s four years in office, former first lady Barbara Bush answered “yes,” when she was asked if she is “pro-choice.” Nancy Reagan said she’s “somewhere in the middle” on the issue of abortion.
“I don’t believe in abortion, but on the other hand, I believe in a woman’s choice, so it puts me somewhere in the middle, but I don’t know what you call that,” she said.
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Former President Trump’s appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, an accomplishment Trump has touted, saying, “Without me the pro Life movement would have just kept losing.” The Republican nominee has pushed back against some pro-life laws recently, however. During the 2024 campaign, Trump criticized a near-total abortion ban in Arizona and a six-week abortion limitation in Florida, arguing that the laws are too extreme.
In her book, Melania writes about disagreements between her and her husband, including on some aspects of immigration policy, The Guardian reported. She writes that “occasional political disagreements between me and my husband” are “part of our relationship, but I believed in addressing them privately rather than publicly challenging him.”