In a video posted to her X account Thursday morning, the former “first lady” defended women’s “individual freedoms” to do what they want with their bodies ― a position at odds with much of the Republican Party.
But also at odds with her own husband, who is struggling to find a coherent message on abortion, stuck between anti-abortion supporters within his activist base and a majority of Americans who support this fundamental right of women.
“Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I defend,” Ms. Trump says in the video. Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth: individual freedom. What does “my body, my choice” really mean?
The video appears to confirm extracts from his memoirs reported Wednesday by the British daily The Guardian.
Melania Trump has rarely expressed her political views publicly, and she has been largely absent from the current election campaign. But in her memoir, due out next Tuesday, she argues that the decision to terminate a pregnancy should be left to a woman and her doctor, “free from government intervention or pressure,” according to 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 to individual liberty, to her own life, gives her the power to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.”
Melania Trump writes that she has “carried this belief with her throughout her adult life.”
These views stand in stark contrast to the Republican Party’s anti-abortion agenda and to Donald Trump, who has repeatedly taken credit for appointing the three U.S. Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the ruling. Roe v. Wade” in 1973 and bragged about sending the abortion issue back to each of the states.
Strategy for rallying?
Democrats therefore accuse the former president of being responsible for the serious deterioration of reproductive rights in the United States, while abortion bans were implemented in large regions after the reversal of the historic ruling, who fifty years ago granted a constitutional right to abortion throughout the country.
The national anti-abortion group “SBA Pro-Life America” denounced the former “first lady”‘s comments on abortion, including her comments about abortion later in pregnancy, but said their “priority is to defeat Kamala Harris.”
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, in reacting to Melania Trump’s comments, highlighted President Trump’s role in repealing “Roe v. Wade.
“Unfortunately for women across the United States, Mrs. Trump’s husband strongly disagrees with her, and it is because of him that more than one in three American women live under an abortion ban that threatens their health, liberty and life,” Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.
Donald Trump said Tuesday he would veto a federal ban on abortion; it was the first time he said it explicitly, after having long refused to answer questions on the subject. Abortion rights advocates, however, are skeptical, saying it cannot be trusted.
The Trump campaign did not respond Thursday to a request for comment on Ms. Trump’s book or video.
Democratic strategist Brittany Crampsie called the release of the memoir “a clear attempt to appeal to a more moderate electorate and to temper very clearly extreme views [du candidat à la vice-présidence] JD Vance on the issue.
Melania Trump also defends abortions later in pregnancy in her memoir, saying that “most abortions performed during the later stages of pregnancy were the result of severe fetal abnormalities that would likely have led to death or death.” stillbirth of the child. Maybe even the death of the mother.
These views seem diametrically opposed to those of her husband, who has often repeated misinformation about late-term abortions, even falsely claiming that Democrats support “after birth” abortion, although infanticide is obviously prohibited in all states.
Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California who focuses on the law and history of reproductive rights, said it was unclear whether releasing the memoir so close to the election was an attempt to help Donald Trump. But she recalls that Melania Trump’s break with her husband on the issue is not rare in American political history.
