Melania Trump defends abortion rights as her husband leads the anti-abortion party

Melania Trump and Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump attend the Trumpettes Gala at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, February 10, 2024 Photo: JIM RASSOL/PALM BEACH POST / USA TODAY NETWORK

Melania Trump, the current wife of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, wrote a stirring defense of reproductive freedom in her new book, a message that opposes one of the most deeply held positions of the party that her husband leads.

“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 wrote in her memoir, Melania, due out next week. The book includes her stirring defense of the right to an abortion, a federal right that was ended in 2022, the result of her husband appointing three justices to the Supreme Court.

“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 even defended late-term abortions, which have been particularly demonized by Republicans.

“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,” she wrote. “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.”

Republicans have been trying to end the right to an abortion for decades. Since Roe v Wade was overturned, 13 states have banned abortion, and another seven states have instituted bans on abortion in the first six to 18 weeks of gestation, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The states that passed total bans are all led by Republicans.

The Trump-Vance campaign, though, has been trying to downplay their party’s stance on abortion. The campaign pressured the Republican party to soften its official position on abortion in its platform, which this year says that the party “will oppose late-term abortion” instead of all abortions.

Meanwhile, abortion remains a top issue for voters in many swing states, and a majority of U.S. adults believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to the Pew Research Center.

In an attempt to gain some ground on the issue, Donald Trump has taken to lying about Democrats’ position on the issue, accusing his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris of supporting executing newborn babies as a form of so-called post-birth abortion.

“Hard to believe, they have some states passing legislation where you can execute the baby after birth. It’s crazy,” he told Fox News in June. This is not true in any state.

Melania Trump discussed her political disagreements with her husband in her memoir, right before the abortion part.

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

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Originally published here.