Exclusive: ‘I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life,’ former first lady writes in memoir

Melania Trump made an extraordinary declaration in an eagerly awaited memoir to be published a month from election day: she is a passionate supporter of a woman’s right to control her own body – including the right to 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,” the Republican nominee’s wife writes, amid a campaign in which Donald Trump’s threats to women’s reproductive rights have played a central role.

“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.

“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.”

  • EndOfLine@lemmy.worldEnglish
    623·
    3 months ago

    Remember when she wore a jacket with the words “I really don’t care. Do U?” when visiting a migrant child detention facility in Texas?

    • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeEnglish
      1129·
      3 months ago

      Do you really think she chose that shirt specifically to signal her disregard for those children, despite knowing exactly how the media would react? Or perhaps it was just an unfortunate coincidence? Does everyone close to Donald need to be equally terrible?

      For all I know, while Donald was threatening North Korea with nuclear holocaust, Melania was campaigning against online bullying. She seems quite reasonable person to me.

      • Glytch@lemmy.world
        301·
        3 months ago

        As Catherine Ryan put it: “She’s just an innocent gold digger who got in way over her head”.

      • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
        23·
        3 months ago

        The jacket makes a pretty shitty statement on the face of it, no matter how you could present it, and the message is completely wrong to wear to a children’s detention facility. I honestly believe she didn’t think about any aspect of it except as a fashion statement, which is a good indication she shouldn’t be a public representative.

      • klemptor@startrek.website
        141·
        3 months ago

        At very minimum, if you assume it’s an innocent mistake, wearing that jacket in that context shows shockingly bad judgment. But she had handlers that surely would’ve noticed this and advised her to change. So that means she wore it intentionally with complete disregard for the context. It shows she’s a cold and cruel person, which isn’t a surprise but does mean that she’s not the reasonable person you think she is.

      • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
        121·
        3 months ago

        Do you really think she chose that shirt specifically to signal her disregard for those children…?

        Yes. Absolutely. She is a conservative.