Former first lady Melania Trump released a video expressing her support for abortion rights and teasing her forthcoming memoir, in which she reportedly describes being a passionate supporter of a woman’s right to control her own body.
“Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard. Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to these essential rights that all women possess from birth. Individual freedom. What does ‘my body, my choice’ really mean?” she said in a video posted to the social platform X.
The former first lady’s memoir, titled “Melania,” is set to come out Oct. 8, exactly four weeks before Election Day.
In it, she writes that it’s “imperative to guarantee” that women have the autonomy to decide their preference on having children “based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government,” The Guardian wrote in an exclusive.
“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,” Trump writes.
The views are a sharp contrast to those held by her husband and many of his supporters, though the Republican presidential nominee has shifted to the middle on abortion during his ongoing campaign.
Earlier this week, former President Trump said he would veto a federal abortion ban if it came across his desk in the White House. He argues that states should decide their own abortion laws, with minimal federal intervention, though says his own preference is for abortion exceptions for rape or incest or when the mother’s life is in jeopardy.
However, abortion rights groups worry his administration could use executive powers to curtail abortion access across the country.
And the former president says he has “no regrets” about handpicking the Supreme Court justices that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to abortion, a point Democrats have relentlessly attacked him on.
Melania Trump reportedly acknowledges in her book that she and her husband have “occasional political disagreements” that she’s addressed privately. Still, she writes there is “no room for negotiation” over the issue of abortion.
“The slogan ‘My Body, My Choice’ is typically associated with women activists and those who align with the pro-choice side of the debate,” she writes. “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.”
In a statement to The Hill, Harris-Walz spokesperson Sarafina Chitika blamed the former president for the current state of reproductive care in the country.
“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,” Chitika’s statement said. “Donald Trump has made it abundantly clear: If he wins in November, he will ban abortion nationwide, punish women, and restrict women’s access to reproductive health care.”
—Updated at 11:27 a.m.