Melania Trump confirms support for abortion rights in new video, putting her at odds with husband’s position

CNN

By Kate Sullivan, CNN

(CNN) — Former first lady Melania Trump said in a new video posted Thursday that she believes there is “no room for compromise” when it comes to a woman’s “individual freedom,” after The Guardian reported excerpts from her forthcoming book in which she says she supports abortion rights “free from any intervention or pressure from the government.”

“Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard. 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?” the former first lady said in a video posted on X. 

Her defense of abortion rights puts her at odds with her husband’s position roughly a month from Election Day. Donald Trump regularly takes credit for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which eliminated federal protections for abortion and led to the enactment of severe restrictions on the procedure in mostly Republican-led states. The former president has said, however, that he would veto a federal abortion ban if he is elected again and that the issue should be left up to the states to legislate.

CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on the former first lady’s latest video.

The former president told Fox News on Thursday that he had spoken with his wife about including her support for abortion rights in the memoir and that he had told her to “write what you believe.”

“We spoke about it, and I said, ‘You have to write what you believe. 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.”

Melania Trump has been largely absent from the campaign trail amid her husband’s third White House bid and has kept a low profile, except for the release of several videos on social media in recent weeks to promote her book, which is slated to be released next week. The video the former first lady posted Thursday includes a link to pre-order her book.

According to The Guardian, the former first lady writes in her book: “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.”

The former president, meanwhile, has waffled on abortion rights over the course of his campaign, struggling at times to navigate an issue that has been politically fraught for Republicans in the post-Roe era. He said recently that he would not support a ballot measure to expand abortion access in his home state of Florida just 24 hours after suggesting he might. He has also taken to casting himself as a “protector” of women, claiming that American women won’t be “thinking about abortion” if he’s elected.

While the former president has boasted about his appointment of three conservative US Supreme Court justices who voted with the majority to overturn Roe, he has publicly acknowledged that the issue has not been a winning one for Republicans pushing for strict bans and has stressed his support for exceptions in the case of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in danger.

Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats, meanwhile, have doubled down on putting abortion at the center of their pitch to women in key states, pointing to the state-level restrictions made possible, in part, by Trump’s high court picks. Harris has enjoyed a clear advantage on the issue, which has helped fuel her lead among female voters nationally and in swing states.

“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,” Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika told CNN in a statement Thursday.

Melania Trump is not the first Republican former first lady to come out in support of abortion rights. Laura Bush, the wife of former President George W. Bush, said before her husband took office that she did not think Roe v. Wade should be overturned. She later said she supported abortion remaining legal in an interview with CNN in 2010 after her husband had left office. Her mother-in-law, Barbara Bush, the wife of former President George H.W. Bush, spoke out against abortion being included in the 1992 GOP platform, saying it was a “personal thing.”

This story and headline have been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed to this report.

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