Melania Trump to Speak Out in Support of Abortion Rights in New Memoir | Politics

Melania Trump made a unprecedented declaration in an eagerly awaited memoir to be printed a month from election day: she is a passionate supporter of a girl’s proper to management her personal physique – together with the correct to abortion.

“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,” the Republican nominee’s spouse writes, amid a marketing campaign in which Donald Trump’s threats to ladies’s reproductive rights have performed a central position.

“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.

“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 has hardly ever expressed political opinions in public. Her ebook, Melania, which reveals the previous first girl to be so firmly out of step with most of her personal occasion, will probably be printed in the US subsequent Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a replica.

Her choice to embrace a full-throated expression of assist for abortion rights is outstanding not simply given her proximity to a Republican candidate working on an anti-abortion platform, but additionally given the extreme deterioration of ladies’s reproductive rights below Donald Trump and the GOP.

In 2022, in the supreme courtroom case Dobbs v Jackson, three justices put in when Donald Trump was president voted to strike down Roe v Wade, the ruling which had protected federal abortion rights since 1973. Republican-run states have since instituted draconian abortion bans.

Donald Trump has tried to each take credit score for the Dobbs choice – lengthy the central goal of evangelical and conservative Catholic donors and voters – and keep away from the fury it has stoked, saying abortion rights needs to be determined by the states.

But Democrats have scored a succession of election wins by campaigning on the problem, even in conservative states, and threats to reproductive rights, amongst them threats to fertility remedies together with IVF, are proving problematic for Republicans up and down this yr’s ticket.

Amid a blizzard of statements opponents deem misogynistic and regressive, JD Vance, Donald Trump’s choose for vice-president, has indicated he would assist a nationwide abortion ban – a transfer it appears his boss’s spouse can be towards.

Donald Trump himself lately acquired right into a tangle over whether or not he would vote in November to protect abortion rights in Florida, a poll his spouse will even forged given their residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. He ultimately stated he would vote no. Judging by her personal phrases, Melania Trump seems seemingly to vote sure.

Her memoir is slim, lengthy on descriptions of her youth in Slovenia, life as a mannequin in New York and love for the person whose third spouse she grew to become, correspondingly quick on coverage dialogue. Donald Trump offers a blurb, praising his spouse’s “commitment to excellence … insightful perspective … [and] entrepreneurial achievements”.

Before discussing abortion, Melania Trump says she disagreed together with her husband on some elements of immigration coverage, not least as an immigrant herself.

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

And but, later in her ebook, she states views on abortion and reproductive rights diametrically opposed to these of her husband and his occasion.

“I have always believed it is critical for people to take care of themselves first,” Melania Trump writes. “It’s a very straightforward concept; in fact, we are all born with a set of fundamental rights, including the right to enjoy our lives. We are all entitled to maintain a gratifying and dignified existence.

“This common-sense approach applies to a woman’s natural right to make decisions about her own body and health.”

Trump says her beliefs about abortion rights spring from “a core set of principles”, on the coronary heart of which sit “individual liberty” and “personal freedom”, on which there's “no room for negotiation”.

Detailing “legitimate reasons for a woman to choose to have an abortion”, she contains hazard to the life of the mom, rape or incest, typically exceptions below state bans, and in addition “a congenital birth defect, plus severe medical conditions”.

Saying “timing matters”, Melania Trump additionally defends the correct to abortion later in being pregnant.

She writes: “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. 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.”

More than 90% of US abortions happen at or earlier than 13 weeks of gestation, according to data from the CDC. Less than 1% of abortions happen at or after 21 weeks.

On the marketing campaign path, Republicans have blatantly mischaracterized Democratic positions on abortion. Last month, debating Kamala Harris, Donald Trump falsely said his opponent’s “vice-presidential pick … says that abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. [Tim Walz] also says: ‘Execution after birth’ – execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born – is OK.”

He was factchecked: it isn't authorized in any state to kill a child after start.

In response to information of Melania Trump’s assist for abortion rights, Sarafina Chitika, a spokesperson for the Harris-Walz marketing campaign, stated in a press release: “Sadly for the women across America, Mrs Trump’s husband firmly disagrees with her and is the reason that more than one in three American women live under a Trump Abortion Ban that threatens their health, their freedom, and their lives.

“Donald Trump has made it abundantly clear: if he wins in November, he will ban abortion nationwide, punish women, and restrict women’s access to reproductive health care.”

The Trump marketing campaign didn't instantly remark.

On social media, Melania Trump doubled down, posting a brief video in which she paraphrased remarks in her ebook.

On the web page, Melania Trump points a distinctly un-Trumpian attraction for empathy.

“Many women opt for abortions due to personal medical concerns,” she writes. “These situations with significant moral implications weigh heavily on the woman and her family and deserve our empathy. Consider, for example, the complexity inherent in the decision of whether the mother should risk her own life to give birth.”

Recent reporting has highlighted instances of ladies who've died in states the place abortion has been banned.

She goes on to attraction for compassion.

“When confronted with an unexpected pregnancy, young women frequently experience feelings of isolation and significant stress. I, like most Americans, am in favor of the requirement that juveniles obtain parental consent before undergoing an abortion. I realize this may not always be possible. Our next generation must be provided with knowledge, security, safety, and solace, and the cultural stigma associated with abortion must be lifted,” writes the previous first girl.

Finally, Melania Trump presents an expression of solidarity with protesters for reproductive rights.

“The slogan ‘My Body, My Choice’ is typically associated with women activists and those who align with the pro-choice side of the debate,” she writes. “But if you really think about it, ‘My Body, My Choice’ applies to both sides – a woman’s right to make an independent decision involving her own body, including the right to choose life. Personal freedom.”