Former first lady Melania Trump vigorously defends abortion rights in her upcoming memoir, breaking with an integral part of the coalition that handed her husband the Republican presidential nomination for a third time earlier this year.
“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,” she writes.
The memoir, simply named Melania, will be published on Tuesday — a month from Election Day. The Guardian first reported on Melania Trump’s views on abortion Wednesday night after obtaining a copy of the book.
“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes,” the copy reads.
“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body. I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”
Melania Trump released a 28-second video on social media Thursday morning, saying “there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth.” She also asked what the slogan, “my body, my choice,” really means in a teaser for her forthcoming book.
The memoir marks a new venture for Melania Trump, as she has rarely expressed her political views publicly. It’s also remarkable, considering former president Donald Trump is actively campaigning against abortion and played a critical role in appointing three conservative justices to the Supreme Court that went on to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. The ruling prompted Republican states to implement their own abortion bans.
Trump has repeatedly said abortion laws should be left to the states and has refused to specify a gestational age past which he believes abortion is wrong, saying only that heartbeat laws that outlaw abortion after six weeks are too restrictive, while also condemning late-term abortions as morally wrong. During Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate, the GOP presidential nominee wrote on social media that he would veto a national abortion ban should he be reelected after refusing to say whether he would do so at his own debate last month. He previously said he does not support such legislation.
In August, Trump angered the pro-life community after saying he opposes Florida’s six-week abortion ban when asked whether he would vote in November for Florida’s ballot measure that would codify abortion rights in the state’s constitution if passed. Clarifying his comments a day later, Trump said he would vote “no” on Florida’s abortion referendum. Based on her views, his wife will likely vote “yes.”
In her soon-to-be-released memoir, Melania Trump says she and her husband disagree on certain political issues like immigration policy. The topic is personal for the former first lady, as she is a Slovenian immigrant herself.
Regarding abortion, she continues writing that “a woman’s natural right to make decisions about her own body and health” is plainly common sense. She reiterated that everyone is endowed “with a set of fundamental rights, including the right to enjoy our lives.”
Furthermore, Melania Trump says she supports a woman’s right to abortion in cases of rape, incest, danger to the life of the mother, and “a congenital birth defect, plus severe medical conditions.” She also defends the procedure later in pregnancy, falsely claiming most late-term abortions are conducted because of fetal abnormalities or to save the life of the mother.
“It is important to note that historically, 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,” she writes. “These cases were extremely rare and typically occurred after several consultations between the woman and her doctor. As a community, we should embrace these common-sense standards. Again, timing matters.”
However, according to a 2013 study, most women seeking abortions at or after 20 weeks “are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.” Rather, they most often seek abortions in later stages of pregnancy because “they were raising children alone, were depressed or using illicit substances, were in conflict with a male partner or experiencing domestic violence, had trouble deciding and then had access problems, or were young and nulliparous.”
More than 93 percent of abortions in the U.S. occur in the first trimester, about 13 weeks of gestation, according to 2021 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Less than 1 percent of abortions were performed at or after 21 weeks.
The pro-life movement expressed displeasure with Melania Trump’s stance.
“In her comments on abortion, First Lady Melania Trump calls abortion ‘freedom.’ However, most women say their abortion was coerced, unwanted or inconsistent with their own preferences. Women with unplanned pregnancies are crying out for more resources, not more abortions,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement obtained by National Review.
“We must have compassion for them and for babies in the womb who suffer from brutal abortions. Tens of thousands of abortions a year are performed on children after the point when they can feel excruciating pain,” Dannenfelser added. “There is no evidence that later abortions are mostly for medical reasons as the First Lady and the abortion industry claim. In fact, research shows they happen for similar reasons as earlier abortions. [Ninety-six percent] of abortions in America happen for elective and unspecified reasons.”
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action, had harsher words for the former first lady and her memoir.
“It’s understandable that more than 50 years of a Roe v. Wade mentality has tainted how women are told to think about pregnancy, because the bottom line is that it’s not just her body in that moment. Two people or maybe more are there,” Hawkins told National Review.
“Melania Trump had a chance to inspire in her book but, instead, choose to push broken feminism that puts women at war with their own bodies. I won’t be buying a copy of the book.”