Former first lady Melania Trump shocked and angered some conservatives Thursday after releasing a video on abortion rights to promote her new memoir, “Melania.”
“Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard,” she said in a video posted on X after The Guardian reported on excerpts from her forthcoming book discussing the issue. “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?”
In the memoir, Melania writes that she believes it’s “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 continues, "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."
https://t.co/ZCTwZSqZND pic.twitter.com/Y9MT3uj97b
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) October 3, 2024
The position puts her at odds with her husband, who has repeatedly taken credit for Roe v. Wade’s reversal, though has irked some pro-life conservatives for refusing to sign a national abortion ban should one come to his desk if he is elected.
Asked to comment about Melania’s position in the memoir, Trump said he told her she’s “got to write what you believe.”
“We spoke about it, and I said, ‘You have to write what you believe,” he told Fox News. “I’m not going to tell what you to do. You have to write what you believe,’” he said. “She is very beloved. People love our former first lady. I can tell you that. But I said, ‘You have to stick with your heart.’ I’ve said that to everybody, you have to go with your heart. There are some people 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.”