Melania Trump has famously taken a very backseat role in her political family, to the point where you wonder if she’s even in the car at this point. But the former First Lady is finding her voice at a very convenient time, and — wow, look at that! — on the very issue that her husband’s party just can’t seem to get right. Yes, that would be abortion.
For context, Melania’s memoir (entitled, naturally, Melania) is coming out Oct. 8, and she’s been promoting the hell out of it. Among other revelations, including the story of her first date with her now-husband, the book reportedly features what seems to be a lengthy section on abortion — and the author is making it crystal clear where she stands.
“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body,” Melania writes, according to The Guardian. “I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”
Explaining her stance, Melania writes that it’s “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.”
As if that wasn’t shocking enough, Melania later defends the right to a later-stage abortion — something Republicans have vehemently opposed, and about which her own husband has been busy spreading misinformation. (Reminder: Post-birth abortions aren’t a thing.) Melania calls such abortions “extremely rare,” explaining that they’re usually prompted by “severe fetal abnormalities” that would likely result in a stillbirth and/or threaten the life of the mother. (According to the CDC, more than 90 percent of US abortions occur at or before 13 weeks, with less than 1 percent taking place after 21 weeks.)
“Timing matters,” Melania goes on, listing “legitimate” reasons to get an abortion, like danger to the life of the mother, rape, or incest, and congenital birth defects.
It’s a lot to absorb. And it’s… surprising, to put it lightly.
Melania has long shied away from speaking on policy, choosing to focus on raising her son, Barron Trump, during Donald Trump’s 2016-2020 term. But with Barron off at college, could it be that this empty nester has found her voice — and just now remembered her lifelong passion for reproductive rights? Or is Team Trump just trying to shore up their unpopular views on a critical issue?
The latter feels more realistic, when you consider the massive amounts of backpedaling and rephrasing that Trump and running mate JD Vance have been doing when it comes to abortion. Trump, for example, once crowned himself the “most pro-life president ever,” then decided that a six-week abortion ban is too short, only to change his mind and proclaim he would support a six-week abortion ban. Vance, on the other hand, tried to sidestep an abortion question at this week’s vice presidential debate, instead speaking on the need for affordable childcare. (FYI, we can and should have both.) And no, he added, he doesn’t support a federal abortion ban; he just wants a “minimum national standard.” What’s the difference, you ask? There isn’t one.
The Republican ticket simply can’t figure out how to flip their record on abortion into a positive. This is the party that rolled back federal abortion rights in a country where 63 percent of adults believe it should be legal in all or most cases, per a 2024 Pew Research Center poll, so yeah, it’s an uphill battle. And in the face of all the unpopularity and back-and-forth, Melania’s suddenly passionate support of the issue just feels too convenient.
And even if it is the truth, even if she has spent her “entire adult life” quietly (read: silently) supporting abortion, you have to wonder where that energy has been for the past decade. Where were these impassioned words three years ago, when the Supreme Court justices her husband selected overturned Roe v. Wade?
Look, we know the First Lady doesn’t make policy, issue executive orders, or nominate justices to the highest court in the land. And we have no way of knowing what kind of influence Melania has on her husband, if any — although in another excerpt from her book published by The Guardian, she wrote about having “occasional political disagreements” with the former president, noting that she “believed in addressing them privately rather than publicly challenging him.” She does say that she pushed Donald to drop a hardline immigration policy, seemingly proving that she has at least some sway.
Barring any other memoir bombshells, we don’t and will likely never know what their conversations on abortion are/were like, if they happened at all, and whether she tried to steer him away from the decisions that would ultimately decimate reproductive rights in the US. Absent any reports of those conversations, lacking any previous proof of the “lifelong” aspect of Melania’s abortion support, and given the frantic backpedaling the Republican ticket is doing around this issue, we can’t be expected to take these words at face value.
In the past months, as Trump and Vance have waffled on abortion, trying to appease their anti-abortion base while toning it down for the pro-choice majority, one key fact has remained the same. Trump appointed the justices that made it possible to overturn Roe v. Wade, knowing that’s exactly what they would do. They might try to convince us that it was about returning abortion to the states, but to paraphrase one of Tim Walz’s debate arguments, someone’s geographic location shouldn’t determine their right to bodily autonomy; even writing that phrase feels absurd. And, as an aside, “states’ rights” was also an argument used to justify the Civil War and defend slavery, so take it as a red flag any time a politician pulls out that one.
Melania can say she’s supported abortion for years. She can write it in a book and speak the words on social media. Maybe she even means them — there’s no way to know. Those words won’t change the fact that her husband and his party were the ones who ended the federal right to abortion, a decision with a very real and terrifying effect on women’s health and freedom. Whatever word salad Republicans come up with next won’t fool us. And as for Melania, let’s just say it’s way too little and far too late to change your tune now.
Before you go, read about these celebrities who’ve shared their own abortion stories: