Melania Trump defends abortion rights in her new memoir

Former first lady Melania Trump passionately defended a woman’s right to an abortion, even in the late stages of pregnancy – a direct contradiction to the views of her husband, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to excerpts from her memoir, which is scheduled next be published week.

“It is imperative to ensure that women have the autonomy to decide their preference for children based on their own beliefs, free from any intervention or pressure from the government,” the former president’s wife writes, according to a published report in ” Melania.” from the Guardian on Wednesday.

Melania Trump’s comments are a political bombshell in the final weeks of a presidential campaign in which Donald Trump’s threats against women’s reproductive rights played a central role. She was rarely seen in public during her husband’s campaign against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris – an exceptionally tough contest that could be decided by a small number of voters in a handful of battleground states.

She appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee shortly after her husband survived an assassination attempt. Two of the former first lady’s most high-profile appearances were headlining fundraisers, including one at her home in Trump Tower in Manhattan that raised a few million dollars for the pro-LGBTQ+ Log Cabin Republicans. Her participation in the events caused a stir when it was revealed that she had received six-figure payments for her participation, although it is unclear who paid.

Melania Trump wrote that she has held a belief in a woman’s right to bodily autonomy her entire adult life.

“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to decide what she does with her own body? “A woman’s fundamental right to individual liberty and her own life gives her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she so chooses,” Trump wrote. “Restricting a woman’s right to decide whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body.”

Trump and her husband’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday evening.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 2022, which established a federal right to access abortion, the issue has been central to the country’s politics. Advertisements in swing states like Arizona feature testimonials from women with nonviable pregnancies who were unable to receive timely medical care until their health deteriorated for fear of violating state law.

ProPublica recently published a report about a Georgia woman who died because she did not have access to proper medical care because she suffered from sepsis due to fetal tissue not being eliminated from her body after a medical abortion.

In addition to the presidential race, the issue has been the subject of several state-by-state votes and is expected to be crucial in deciding which party controls the House of Representatives – an outcome that has weighed on suburban women in places like Orange County and the Orange County suburbs This could be due to cities like Philadelphia and Atlanta, which have conservative views but support access to abortion.

Polls show that the majority of Americans do not approve of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson to overturn Roe and support abortion rights.

Jessica Levinson, an election law professor at Loyola Law School, said Melania Trump’s support for abortion rights shows why restricting them – once an academic discussion that has now become a reality – could be deeply problematic for Republicans.

“One of Donald Trump’s greatest impacts is the way he has transformed the Supreme Court and its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. “Some say if Kamala Harris wins it will be because Roe was overturned,” she said. “And now we have the president’s wife who helped overturn Roe by saying she strongly supports a woman’s right to choose. … And she’s not the only Republican who thinks that.”

The former president has taken a dizzying array of positions on the issue.

In 1999 he described himself as “very decisive”. Courting conservatives in 2011 as he considered a run for the White House in 2012, he said, “I’m pro-life.” In the weeks before his 2016 election victory, he vowed to overturn Roe v. Wade .

Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision, Trump has frustrated his one-time allies in the anti-abortion movement by repeatedly changing his message on abortion in response to Republican midterm defeats and widespread public outrage and alarm over abortion bans.

In early 2023, Trump blamed the “abortion issue” for Republicans underperforming in the 2022 midterm elections. Six months later, on the anniversary of the Dobbs decision, he called himself “the most pro-life president ever” and bragged about appointing three U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe.

Since then, Trump has gradually moved away from this strident anti-abortion rhetoric.

In an appearance on “Meet the Press” in September 2023, Trump called Florida’s six-week abortion ban “a terrible mistake.” He criticized Republicans who called for a no-exceptions ban on abortion in cases of rape or incest and promised to work with Democrats to pass a national bipartisan abortion law.

“We will agree on a certain number of weeks or months or however you want to define it,” Trump said. “And both sides will come together and both sides – both sides, and this is a big statement – ​​both sides will come together. And for the first time in 52 years, you have a problem we can put behind us.”

From national to state and local races, Democrats have seized on the issue of reproductive rights to urge their voters to vote.

“Unfortunately for women across America, Ms. Trump’s husband strongly disagrees with her and is the reason more than one in three American women are living under a Trump abortion ban that threatens their health, their freedom and their lives,” says Sarafina Chitika, a Harris campaign spokeswoman said in a statement. “Donald Trump has made it clear: If he wins in November, he will ban abortions nationwide, penalize women and restrict women’s access to reproductive health care.”

People who know Trump, whether he is friends or enemies with the former first lady, said her views are not surprising.

“She’s her own woman, she has her own opinions,” said someone with close ties to the Trump campaign who interacted with her regularly and requested anonymity to speak candidly. “I think that her and her husband’s worldviews agree on a lot of things. Like any normal person, there will be areas where they disagree. She will not compromise on her beliefs. I think that’s very clear when you’ve seen the trajectory of her entire career.”

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris shake hands before the start of their September debate.

(Alex Brandon/Associated Press)

Stephanie Grisham, the first lady’s former chief of staff and press secretary turned critic, said in an interview that she was not surprised by Trump’s beliefs, but was surprised by the timing.

“She’s always been very independent and done her own things, so the fact that she takes such a different position than him on this issue doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Grisham, who resigned after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on March 6. January 2021. “The fact that she chooses to share it in her memoir I find strange. It’s kind of strange to share this excerpt now and even talk about it in a paper. I don’t know, maybe she’s trying to appeal to a different audience to sell more copies of the book.”

It is not uncommon for a president or candidate and their spouse to disagree on policy. Former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush and former Presidents George W. Bush and Laura Bush disagreed on the issue of reproductive rights. Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards and his late wife Elizabeth disagreed over same-sex marriage.

Trump’s book suggests that she has other disagreements with her husband on issues such as immigration, but prefers to negotiate them out of the public eye.

“Occasional political differences between me and my husband are part of our relationship, but I believed in addressing them privately rather than challenging him publicly,” Trump wrote.

A notable section of Trump’s writings focuses on late-term abortions, which were a flashpoint in the only debate between Donald Trump and Harris, with the Republican claiming that Democrats support killing babies in the final months of pregnancy and after birth.

“It’s an execution,” Trump said.

Killing babies after birth is not legal in any state.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, very few women have abortions after the first or second trimester – less than 1% of these procedures are performed at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy. Such procedures are almost always carried out because there is a great risk to the health of the mother or fetus.

Her views on late-term abortion reflect the reality that women choose this path because it puts their health or that of their baby at serious risk.

“It is important to note that historically, most abortions in the later stages of pregnancy were the result of severe fetal abnormalities that would likely have resulted in the death or stillbirth of the child. Perhaps even the death of the mother,” Trump wrote. “These cases were extremely rare and typically occurred after multiple consultations between the woman and her doctor. As a community, we should embrace these common sense standards.”

Mehta reported from Los Angeles, Jarvie from Atlanta.