MELANIA TRUMP IS LATEST REPUBLICAN FIRST LADY TO BACK ABORTION

MELANIA TRUMP IS LATEST REPUBLICAN FIRST LADY TO BACK ABORTION

Melania Trump seems to have joined a long line of Republican former first ladies who have come out in support of abortion rights, putting them at odds with their husbands’ public views.

In a short video clip promoting her forthcoming book, Mrs Trump expressed her support for women’s “individual freedom”, describing it as an “essential right that all women possess from birth”.

It comes a day after an excerpt of her soon-to-be-released memoir, in which she reportedly takes an even clearer pro-choice stance, was published in a newspaper report.

Mrs Trump’s apparent stance on the issue appears to contrast with the position of her husband, who has taken credit for helping overturn Roe v Wade, upending the constitutional right to abortion.

But it follows a decades-long American tradition of Republican first ladies who – since Roe v Wade was first decided in 1973 – have said legal abortion access should be protected.

In 1975, while still in the White House, First Lady Betty Ford called the Roe ruling a “great, great decision”.

Nancy Reagan waited until her husband, President Ronald Reagan, left office before she said publicly that she “believed in a woman’s choice”, but her position on the issue was reportedly well known within the White House.

Barbara Bush, wife of President George HW Bush, and her daughter-in-law, Laura Bush, wife of President George W Bush, were similar, revealing their stance on the issue after their husbands left the White House.

“I think it’s important that it remain legal, because I think it’s important for people, for medical reasons and other reasons,” Laura Bush said in a 2010 interview promoting her memoir.

Mrs Trump’s approach was different.

In a black-and-white video posted on her X account on Thursday, Mrs Trump said “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?” Mrs Trump continued.

The video comes one day after The Guardian published an excerpt from her new book, Melania, set to be released on 8 October.

In the excerpt, quoted by the Guardian, she writes: “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.”

“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,” she continues.

“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.” (BBC News)