Melania Trump seems to have joined a long line of Republican former first ladies who have come out in support of abortion rights, putting them at odds with their husbands’ public views.
In a short video clip promoting her forthcoming book, Mrs Trump expressed her support for women’s “individual freedom”, describing it as an “essential right that all women possess from birth”.
It comes a day after an excerpt of her soon-to-be-released memoir, in which she reportedly takes an even clearer pro-choice stance, was published in a newspaper report.
Mrs Trump’s apparent stance on the issue appears to contrast with the position of her husband, who has taken credit for helping overturn Roe v Wade, upending the constitutional right to abortion.
But it follows a decades-long American tradition of Republican first ladies who – since Roe v Wade was first decided in 1973 – have said legal abortion access should be protected.
In 1975, while still in the White House, First Lady Betty Ford called the Roe ruling a “great, great decision”.
Nancy Reagan waited until her husband, President Ronald Reagan, left office before she said publicly that she “believed in a woman’s choice”, but her position on the issue was reportedly well known within the White House.
Barbara Bush, wife of President George HW Bush, and her daughter-in-law, Laura Bush, wife of President George W Bush, were similar, revealing their stance on the issue after their husbands left the White House.
“I think it’s important that it remain legal, because I think it’s important for people, for medical reasons and other reasons,” Laura Bush said in a 2010 interview promoting her memoir.
Mrs Trump’s approach was different.
In a black-and-white video posted on her X account on Thursday, Mrs Trump said “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?” Mrs Trump continued.
The video comes one day after The Guardian published an excerpt from her new book, Melania, set to be released on 8 October.
In the excerpt, quoted by the Guardian, she writes: “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.”
“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,” she continues.
“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.”
Kate Andersen Brower, a journalist and author of the book First Women, said she was “shocked” by the comments.
“So shocked that I wanted to check it was real,” she said. “She’s very much been in line with her husband, so on this issue how did she spend all those years watching him derail something that she seems to care about?”
More than the other first ladies, Ms Brower said, Mrs Trump’s comments appear “diametrically opposed” to her husband’s approach on the issue.
And she is the only first lady so far to make her stance on abortion known while her husband is actively seeking re-election.
Indeed, the timing of Mrs Trump’s comments suggest a possible political angle, Ms Brower said.
“It’s not out of the realm of possibility that this was done intentionally to come out right before the election, because it could appeal to those swing state voters who are upset about the overturning of Roe v Wade,” she said. “Maybe they could see this as a sign that he [Trump] perhaps is softening on abortion.”
But Republican strategist Rina Shah offered a different view.
The notion of Mrs Trump trying to help out her husband “doesn’t track with the Melania we know”, she said.
“At this point in the game it doesn’t change anything, and she knows that,” Ms Shah said. “Early ballots have already gone out in certain places. It’s just too late.”
Abortion access is a key issue in next month’s 2024 election – and it is considered a weak point for the Republican Party, which has struggled to appeal to a conservative base that opposes the procedure and a wider electorate that supports abortion access.
Throughout the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump’s position on the issue has fluctuated.
Earlier this week, the Republican presidential nominee said for the first time that he would veto any federal abortion ban in the unlikely event that such a measure ever passed Congress.
The BBC has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has sought to capitalise on Trump’s position in an effort to galvanise voters.
She has regularly cast Trump as a threat to women’s autonomy because of the overturning of Roe v Wade, which took place after he appointed a conservative majority to the Supreme Court.
“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,” Sarafina Chitika, a spokeswoman for the Harris-Walz campaign told the BBC. – BBC
By Ana Faguy & Holly Honderich
