Melania Trump says she supports abortion rights in break with husband | News about the 2024 US election

Melania Trump, the wife of former US President Donald Trump, said there is “no room for compromise” on a woman’s right to an abortion – a position that is in stark contrast to that of her husband.

“Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I protect,” the former first lady said in a video posted to social media on Thursday.

“There is no doubt that there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women have from birth: individual freedom. What does “my body, my choice” really mean?”

Her comments appear to represent a significant departure from Donald Trump’s public stance.

The former president has championed his role in overturning the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which previously established a constitutional right to access abortions.

Campaign against abortion restrictions

While the 78-year-old former president has frequently changed his stance on abortion over the years, he currently advocates leaving the issue to individual states to decide.

“In my opinion, we now have abortion where everyone wanted it legally, the states will decide by vote or legislation or maybe both,” Trump said in April.

“And whatever they decide, it must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state.”

Trump also took credit for appointing three of the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. This decision ended more than 50 years of federal abortion protections.

“I did a great service with that,” Trump said during the presidential debate on September 10, referring to his role in the court decision. “It took courage to do it. And the Supreme Court had great courage in doing so.”

“A slap in the face”

Melania Trump has been more reserved when it comes to expressing her political views in public and rarely spoke out on controversial issues, especially during the current 2024 election season.

But Thursday’s video appeared to be part of promotion for her new, self-titled memoir, “Melania,” due out next week.

On Wednesday, The Guardian newspaper published some advance extracts. In one part, Melania Trump writes: “A woman’s fundamental right to individual freedom and her own life gives her the power to terminate her pregnancy if she so chooses.”

The newspaper said it also defends some abortions that are performed in later stages of pregnancy, mostly for medical necessity or to save the mother’s life.

Her comments are likely to cause further division within the Republican Party, where there have been rumors of dissent against her husband’s ambiguous stance on abortion access.

In March, for example, Donald Trump made comments that suggested he would support a nationwide ban. “Maybe we could bring the country together on this issue,” he said on a morning radio show.

But when he backed down in April and rejected any possible federal ban, there was a backlash from evangelicals and hard-line conservatives, including his former Vice President Mike Pence.

Pence called Trump’s stance a “slap in the face” to “millions of pro-life Americans” who voted for him in 2016 and 2020.

In June, the Republican Party under Trump’s leadership also adopted a platform document that did not offer explicit support for a nationwide abortion ban, a break from recent tradition.

This, too, sparked an outcry from some members of the Republican base who feared it would signal a waning commitment to implementing abortion restrictions.

Broad public support

Political experts have long viewed abortion as a winning issue for Democrats, who largely support greater access to reproductive health care.

When the Democratic Party performed better than expected in the 2022 midterm elections, critics attributed the results to public anger over the Supreme Court’s decision to strip federal abortion protections.

Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center confirmed that two years later, a majority of Americans still support abortion in almost all cases. Nearly six in 10 respondents said abortion should be legal.

In this year’s presidential campaign, Trump has tried to win over female voters – and some experts say he may downplay abortion as a campaign issue because of it.

During this week’s vice presidential debate, for example, Trump’s vice presidential nominee JD Vance tried to take a moderate position on the issue by focusing on a “family-friendly” platform and expressing sympathy for those considering abortion.

However, he has previously stated that he would support a nationwide ban on abortion. “I definitely want abortion to be illegal on a national level,” Vance said in January 2022 while running for Senate.

As the debate between Vance and Democrat Tim Walz was underway, Trump reiterated on his social media platform Truth Social that he would not support a nationwide ban.