It was revealed Wednesday night that Melania Trump’s upcoming memoir will include a full-throated defense of abortion rights, something her husband Donald Trump echoed multiple times during the presidential campaign. People on either side of the issue were not very impressed, even though they had turned the issue around.
“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying a woman control over her own body,” Melania Trump wrote in her memoir. “I have held this belief all my adult life.”
Melania Trump also defended the right to a late-term abortion, something her husband has repeatedly demonized. (Less than 1% of abortions occur after 21 weeks of pregnancy.)
“Sadly for women across America, Mrs. Trump’s husband is adamantly against her, which is why more than one in three American women are living under Trump’s abortion ban, which threatens their health, freedom, and lives. “That’s why,” Harris campaign spokeswoman Sarafina said. Chitika said in an email. “Donald Trump has made it abundantly clear that if he wins in November, he will ban abortions across the country, punish women, and limit women’s access to reproductive health care.”
Melania Trump’s comments also surprised anti-abortion activists.
“It’s hard to follow the logic of publishing a book by a former first lady so close to an election that undermines President Trump’s message to pro-life voters,” said Kristan, president of the influential group Students for Life of America. Hawkins posted on Twitter/X on Wednesday. night. “What a waste of momentum.”
In recent weeks, anti-abortion activists have grown increasingly fed up with the former president, who has struggled with other Republicans to redefine his message on abortion rights amid anger over the overturning of Roe v. Wade. I’ve done it.
Early in the campaign, Trump boasted that he had appointed three U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe and called himself “the most pro-life president in history.” But after Kamala Harris became the presidential nominee, Trump vowed that his administration would be “great for women and their reproductive rights” and would not sign a nationwide abortion ban. He vowed to do so – just weeks after refusing to say he would exercise his veto power.
Republican campaign strategist Liz Maher said Melania Trump’s comments may feel like a further insult to anti-abortion voters who feel abandoned by Trump. He added that he is carrying out a strong campaign to induce voters. These champions were key to President Trump’s 2016 victory.
“This may be another thing that makes pro-lifers think, ‘I can’t do this with this guy,’ and many of them were single-issue voters anyway,” Mair said. “He doesn’t give them much incentive to show up and do anything for his benefit.”
When Tresa Undem, a pollster who has been surveying people about abortion for more than 20 years, heard this comment, she immediately thought, “Wow.” So she thought, “This is a campaign.”
But Undem isn’t sure who exactly this move is for, especially given the Trumps’ acrimonious relationship in public. Melania Trump has rarely expressed her political views and has largely disappeared from Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Undem said Melania Trump’s comments are “very unlikely” to comfort moderate or conservative voters who support abortion rights.
“This strong feeling didn’t just come out of nowhere this year, right? So it’s clear that she’s not influencing him on abortion policy,” Undem said. “She was never positioned as having any policy position or weight or influence over Trump, and I don’t think voters ever thought about her either.”
