“I don’t want government in my personal business,” the former first lady said
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From Left: Melania Trump with Donald Trump on April 6, 2024
Melania Trump said in an interview released over the weekend that her husband, Donald Trump, has known about her position on abortion rights “since the day we met.”
“He knew my position and my beliefs since the day we met, and I believe in individual freedom,” the former first lady, 54, said in an interview that aired Sunday, Oct. 6 on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. “I want to decide what I want to do with my body. I think, I don’t want government in my personal business.”
Her comments come as an excerpt from her upcoming memoir, Melania, which will be released on Tuesday, Oct. 8, is said to criticize the government’s restrictions on reproductive rights, including those on abortion.
“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,” Melania writes in the book, according to The Guardian, which obtained a copy.
“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.
In response to questions about the timing of her position being announced just weeks before the 2024 presidential election, Melania told Sunday Morning Futures it was not “written in the last week or the last month.”
“That book was written months before, and it was in print months before,” she continued. “So that was my belief, and it is my belief, and I wanted to put it in the book because I want to be authentic.”
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The former first lady’s stance on abortion is at odds with the political accomplishments of her husband, who previously boasted that he’s “proud to be the most pro-life president in American history.”
Donald, 78, said in a 1999 interview that he considered himself “pro-choice in every aspect,” but when he sought the presidency in 2016, he rebranded himself as “pro-life” on the campaign trail and called to “ban” abortions and punish women who get them. (He later redirected his ire at the doctors who perform abortions.)
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Though Donald has since touted his anti-abortion record — including by repeatedly reminding voters that he appointed the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade — he has waffled on his exact beliefs during the 2024 campaign, as polling shows most Americans favor reproductive rights.
Last month, Trump suggested on his Truth Social platform that reproductive rights will be a topic of the past if he’s elected, telling women that their current lives are “miserable.”
“I will fix all of that, and fast, and at long last this national nightmare will be over,” Trump said in the Sept. 20 post. “Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free! You will no longer be thinking about abortion, because it is now where it always had to be, with the States, and a vote of the people.”
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