As former President Donald Trump works to distance himself from the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned a woman’s right to choose, former first lady Melania Trump says she supports abortion rights in her new self-titled memoir.
“Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard,” she said in a video posted Thursday morning on X, formerly Twitter, in which she reads an excerpt from “Melania,” to be released Tuesday. “Without a doubt, there is no room to compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth: individual freedom. What does my body, my choice really mean?”
Melania Trump has one child with her husband, former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.
In another excerpt published by The Guardian, Melania Trump writes, “It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government.”
Danger to the life of the mother, rape, incest, congenital birth defects and severe medical conditions are among the “legitimate reasons for a woman to choose to have an abortion,” she writes.
Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June 2022, which eliminated a woman’s constitutional right to abortion, several states have enacted restrictions and outright bans on the procedure.
“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?" Melania Trump writes in her book, according to The Guardian. "A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes."
Melania Trump rarely expressed political opinions while she was first lady and has kept a low profile since leaving the White House.
Her opinion about abortion stands in stark contrast to her husband, who has held varying positions on the issue. As president, Donald Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, and he has since said he's "proud" of his role leading to the ruling.
When running for president in 2016, Donald Trump said “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who illegally get an abortion.
He has since softened his tone. During this election season, the former president has often said individual states should decide on their abortion laws. He has falsely claimed that, before Roe was struck down, both Republicans and Democrats wanted the issue returned to the states.
Donald Trump, who has claimed he would be “great for women and their reproductive rights” if he returns to the White House, said in a Truth Social post this week he would veto a federal abortion ban.
Asked to comment on Melania Trump's abortion comments, the Trump campaign directed Spectrum News to the former first lady's press team. Former President Trump on Thursday responded to his wife's stance in an interview with Fox News.
"We spoke about it, and I said, 'you have to write what you believe. I'm not going to tell you what to do. You have to write what you believe,'" former President Trump said. "She's very beloved. People love our former first lady, I can tell you that. But I said you have to stick with your heart. I've said that to everybody. You have to go with your heart. There are some people that are very, very far right on the issue, meaning without exceptions, and then there are other people that view it a little bit differently than that."