Melania Trump voices support for abortion rights ahead of election

Melania Trump has revealed her support for abortion rights ahead of the release of her memoir, exposing a stark contrast with her husband on the crucial election issue.

In a video posted to her X account on Thursday morning, the former first lady defended women’s “individual freedoms” to do what they want with their body — a position at odds with much of the Republican Party and husband Donald, who has struggled to find a consistent message on abortion.

“Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard,” she said in the video. “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 video appears to confirm excerpts of her self-titled memoir reported by The Guardian on Wednesday.

Mrs Trump has rarely publicly expressed her personal political views and has been largely absent from the campaign trail.

But in her memoir, set to be released publicly next Tuesday, she argues that the decision to end a pregnancy should be left to a woman and her doctor, “free from any intervention of pressure from the government”, according to the published excerpts.

“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?” she wrote, according to The Guardian. “A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.”

Mrs Trump writes that she has “carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life”.

These views contrast sharply with the Republicans’ anti-abortion platform and with Donald Trump, who has repeatedly taken credit for appointing the three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v Wade and boasted about returning the abortion question to the states.

Democrats have blamed the former president for the severe deterioration of reproductive rights as abortion bans were implemented in large swathes of the country following the overturning of the landmark case, which had granted a constitutional right to abortion.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign noted Mr Trump’s role in ending Roe v Wade in a statement reacting to Mrs Trump’s defence of abortion rights.

“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 said in a statement.

“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.”

Mr Trump on Tuesday said he would veto a federal abortion ban, the first time he has explicitly said so after previously refusing to answer questions on the subject.

Abortion rights advocates are sceptical, however, saying Mr Trump cannot be trusted not to restrict reproductive rights.

Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said the memoir is another example of “the Trumps playing voters like a fiddle”.

“As president, (Trump) made it his mission to get Roe v Wade overturned,” she said in a statement. “Melania stood by him, never once publicly disavowing his actions until weeks before an election where our bodies are again on the ballot and they are losing voters to this issue. Read between the lines.”