Melania Trump defends abortion rights as her husband leads 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 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has written a moving defense of reproductive freedom in her new book, a message that opposes one of the most deeply held positions of the party led by her husband.

“It is imperative to ensure that women have the autonomy to decide their preference for having children, based on their own beliefs, without any government intervention or pressure,” she wrote in her memoir: Melanie, is due out next week. The book includes her moving defense of the right to abortion, a federal right that ended in 2022, following her husband’s appointment of 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 to individual freedom, to her own life, gives her the power to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.

“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether or not to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is tantamount to denying her control over her own body. I have carried this belief with me throughout my adult life.

Melania Trump even defended late-term abortions, particularly demonized by Republicans.

“It is important to note that historically, most abortions performed during the later stages of pregnancy were the result of severe fetal abnormalities that would likely have led to the death or stillbirth of the child,” he said. -she writes. “Maybe even the death of the mother. These cases were extremely rare and usually occurred after several consultations between the woman and her doctor. As a community, we should adopt these common-sense standards. Again, timing matters.

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

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

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

In an attempt to gain traction on the issue, Donald Trump began lying about Democrats’ position on the issue, accusing his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris of supporting the execution of newborns as a form of abortion said after the birth.

“Hard to believe, some states pass laws allowing the execution of 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, just before the part on abortion.

“The occasional political disagreements between me and my husband are part of our relationship,” she wrote. “But I believed we should speak to them privately rather than challenge him publicly.”

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