The rarely-seen former First Lady Melania Trump spent the last two nights plugging her new book, Melania on Fox News’s Hannity.
During the segments, host Sean Hannity asked about her husband Donald Trump’s decision to enter the 2016 presidential race, the state of American discourse, the attempted assassination attempt on her husband, and her alleged issues getting adequate Secret Service protection from the Biden administration.
But Hannity never quite got around to asking Melania about one prickly, very un-MAGA opinion the former First Lady recently shared; when it comes to abortion, she is pro-choice.
“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,” she writes in the book.
Melania’s husband appointed two of the conservative Supreme Court Justices who helped overturn Roe v Wade, ending federal abortion rights and clearing the pathway for extreme restrictions and, in some cases, prosecution of women who seek out abortions.
The former First Lady said she has been a supporter of women’s reproductive rights for the entirety of her adult life.
“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 writes in the memoir, according to an advanced copy obtained by The Guardian. “Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body. I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”
Melania doubled down on her stance on Wednesday when she posted a video to her X account discussing the topic using the phrase “individual freedom.”
“Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard. 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?” she asks in the video.
Abortion has been one of the sharpest thorns in Trump’s side this campaign season; in addition to the blowback overturning Roe has caused the Republican Party, the former president has found himself at odds with both his wife and his running mate on the issue.
Despite Senator JD Vance’s insistence that he would not support a federal abortion ban, he has said in the past that he would. Trump has fought to distance himself from that stance and has said he wants to leave the issue up to the states.
When asked about his wife’s defense of abortion access in her book, Trump gave an uncharacteristically reasonable answer to Fox News.
“I said, you have to write what you believe. I’m not going to tell you what to do. You have to write what you believe,” he said.