(Headline USA) Melania Trump revealed her pro-abortion stance Thursday ahead of the release of her upcoming memoir, exposing a stark contrast with her husband, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, on the election issue.
In a video posted to her X account Thursday morning, the former first lady said, “Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard.”
https://t.co/ZCTwZSqZND pic.twitter.com/Y9MT3uj97b
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) October 3, 2024
“Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth: individual freedom,” she continued. “What does ‘my body, my choice’ really mean?”
The video appears to confirm excerpts of her self-titled memoir reported by The Guardian on Wednesday.
Melania Trump has rarely publicly expressed her personal political views and has been largely absent from the campaign trail.
But in her memoir, set to be released publicly next Tuesday, she argues that the decision to end a pregnancy should be left to a woman and her doctor, “free from any intervention of pressure from the government,” according to the published excerpts.
“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?” she wrote, 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 writes that she has “carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”
These views contrast sharply with the GOP’s pro-life platform and with Donald Trump, who appointed the three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, returning abortion back to the states.
Donald Trump said Thursday that he had talked to his wife about the book and told her to “go with your heart.”
“We spoke about it. And I said, you have to write what you believe,” he told Fox News. “I’m not going to tell you what to do. You have to write what you believe.”
“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,” he added.
Melania Trump also defends abortions later in pregnancy, asserting that “most abortions conducted during the later stages of pregnancy were the result of severe fetal abnormalities that probably would have led to the death or stillbirth of the child. Perhaps even the death of the mother.”
“These cases were extremely rare and typically occurred after several consultations between the woman and her doctor,” she writes.
The national abortion group SBA Pro-Life America denounced the former first lady’s views on abortion, including her comments on abortion later in pregnancy, but said their “priority is to defeat Kamala Harris.”
“Women with unplanned pregnancies are crying out for more resources, not more abortions,” the organization’s president Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement.
“We must have compassion for them and for babies in the womb who suffer from brutal abortions,” she added.
Donald Trump promoted his wife’s book at a September rally in New York, calling on supporters to “go out and get her book.” It is unclear if the former president has read the book.
“Go out and buy it,” he told the crowd. “It’s great. And if she says bad things about me, I’ll call you all up, and I’ll say, ‘Don’t buy it.'”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
