Melania Trump shocks again: in yet another demonstration that she considers herself a different entity from her husband, who is running for the White House, she launches into an impassioned defence of women’s rights to control their own bodies, including the right to abortion. The former first lady has written a memoir that will be released in bookstores a month before the Nov. 5 election, that is next Tuesday, Oct. 8 (published by Skyhorse).
“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,” writes the Republican candidate’s wife, in the midst of a campaign in which abortion is a crucial issue. As president, her husband ensured that federal protections for the termination of pregnancy were overturned, and in nearly half of the United States abortion is now more difficult, or nearly impossible.
“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.”
The quotes come from the Guardian, which obtained a copy of the book, simply titled Melania, in white on a black cover.
This passionate defence of pregnancy termination reveals Melania Trump in deep disagreement with her party’s official line. The wife of the former president rarely expresses her political views in public. She is not on the campaign trail.
Melania is a slim book that delves into descriptions of the former first lady’s life as a girl in Slovenia, her memories as a young model and her love for the man whose third wife she became. Donald Trump signs a blurb praising his wife’s “commitment to excellence … insightful perspective … [and] entrepreneurial achievements”.
However, one has to wonder whether this passionate defence of abortion will hurt the Trump campaign. Statistics say that American women are overwhelmingly in favor of reproductive health’s rights. Melania’s stance paradoxically may blunt many Republican women’s annoyance, at the idea of voting for the man who has severely restricted these rights.
In 2022, in the case Dobbs v. Jackson, three justices appointed by President Donald Trump voted to strike down Roe v. Wade, which had protected the federal right to abortion for fifty years. Legislation on the subject was thus sent back to the individual states, and Republican states were quick to institute more or less stringent bans.
Given how much the issue inflames tempers – reports about women who have died because they have been unable to obtain an abortion are starting to emerge – Trump in his recent statements has tried to catch up. During the TV debate with Democratic rival Kamala Harris, he argued that he personally might be in favor of abortion in certain cases, but that the view of all jurists was that it was a state matter and not a federal matter, so the Supreme Court’s decision finally ended a debate that had been ripping the country apart for years.
Of course, it is not true that the debate is over, quite the contrary. It is only true that donors and more conservative voters, especially Catholics and evangelicals, are now satisfied.
But Democrats have scored a series of electoral victories by campaigning on abortion and the threat to reproductive health, even in conservative states.
Republican vice presidential running mate JD Vance for his part said he would support a national ban on abortion. And in Florida, one of ten states where a referendum on abortion will also be voted on in November, how will Trump vote? Melania, who, like her husband, resides at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, if consistent with her statements should be voting against the current law (you can only have an abortion up to the sixth week of pregnancy, a deadline by which women often do not even realize they are pregnant). Donald Trump contradicted himself, but finally explained that he would vote no. The ideological confusion could play into the Republican’s hands among certain segments of the GOP electorate.
Melania Trump, however, says she not only supports abortion as an individual freedom, she writes, of a “a core set of principles”, on which “there is no room for negotiation”, but lists the reasons why a woman can legitimately decide to have an abortion, including rape, incest and “a congenital birth defect, plus severe medical conditions”. Since because “timing matters” one should be able to have an abortion even in late pregnancy: “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… As a community, we should embrace these common-sense standards.”
In Melania, the former first lady also hints at her views on immigration, being an immigrant herself. Until now, she explains, she kept her disagreements on the subject with Donald. “Occasional political disagreements between me and my husband,” she says, are “part of our relationship, but I believed in addressing them privately rather than publicly challenging him.” Until now.
