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Former First Lady Melania Trump believes women have the right to choose an abortion “free from any intervention or pressure from the government,” according to a copy of her forthcoming memoir obtained by The Guardian — a very interesting take given her husband’s role in ending the constitutional right to an abortion in the U.S.
“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body,” she reportedly writes in Melania, out on October 8. “I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”
The excerpt that some media outlets are calling a “bombshell” has sent abortion opponents into a frenzy. But if you read between the lines, Trump is not exactly the abortion-rights defender that The Guardian paints her as.
Though the former First Lady credits her beliefs in “individual liberty” and “personal freedom” for her stance on abortion, there are a few language tells that should give people pause. According to The Guardian, she writes there are “legitimate reasons (emphasis mine) for a woman to choose to have an abortion,” which the outlet says includes risk to the pregnant person’s life, rape, incest, severe medical conditions, and congenital birth defects. (Her husband, who often brags about overturning Roe v. Wade, has also said that he supports three of these so-called exceptions, which patients and physicians across the country have said do not work in practice.) This implies that, in Melania’s eyes, there are illegitimate reasons to have an abortion — perhaps simply not wanting to be pregnant?
https://t.co/ZCTwZSqZND pic.twitter.com/Y9MT3uj97b
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) October 3, 2024
Then there’s her take on the slogan “My body, my choice,” which she writes “is typically associated with women activists and those who align with the pro-choice side of the debate,” according to The Guardian. Then Melania reportedly adds: “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 (emphasis mine).”
Abortion-rights supporters have long maintained that they support people’s right to do whatever is best for them and their families, whether that’s the choice to continue or to end a pregnancy. But here Melania muddies the waters in a manner similar to “pro-life feminists” before her, making it seem as if the pro-choice movement is only invested in abortion access and not in a constellation of progressive policies that’d actually help people choose to start or expand their families, get free or low-cost birth control, and access affordable child care, universal pre-K, and paid family leave — all policies that her husband’s party opposes.
So why come forward with purported support for abortion rights one month ahead of the election? The issue remains one of Donald Trump’s biggest weaknesses in November, no matter how much he tries to flip-flop on his position. His most recent attempt was to say he would veto a national abortion ban, eliding the fact that there are other avenues that he could use to effectively outlaw the procedure nationwide and which he has not disavowed.
A cynical read would be that the Trump campaign hopes these Melania excerpts will help them with moderate voters who are angry about Dobbs and fear the former president will go even further to roll back our rights if he’s reelected. The women in his orbit have always been useful in softening his image: In a similar fashion to Ivanka Trump being painted as a “moderating force” during the first Trump administration, the former First Lady’s memoir helps portray her as someone who will advocate for women’s rights from inside the White House.
I reached out to Melania’s reps with several follow-up questions: Does she support federal legislation on abortion? What are her thoughts on the overturn of Roe, in which her husband played a role by handpicking the Supreme Court justices that delivered the decision? And given what she reportedly wrote in her memoir, will she break with her husband and vote “yes” on Amendment 4 to codify abortion rights in Florida’s constitution? We’ll update this post if we hear back.
