Melania Trump, Whose Husband Helped End Roe, Signals Support for Abortion Rights

WASHINGTON — Melania Trump, the former first lady, said in a video Thursday that there was “no room for compromise” on a woman’s right to “individual freedom,” a day after a reported excerpt from her coming memoir said she supported abortion rights.

Trump’s comments landed as former President Donald Trump and members of his party have struggled to convey a softer impression of their opposition to abortion, a key issue threatening his support with female voters and his attempt to return to the White House.

She made her remarks in a promotional video for a new memoir scheduled for release Tuesday. Her husband, who opposes federal abortion rights and has taken credit for helping overturn Roe v. Wade, did not immediately comment.

“Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard,” she said in the video, which was posted to her account on the social platform X. “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?”

On Wednesday evening, The Guardian published excerpts from Melania Trump’s book, in which she went further than her words in the video: “A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.”

She also defended some abortions performed in the later stages of pregnancy, mostly out of medical necessity or to save the life of the mother: “As a community, we should embrace these common-sense standards. Again, timing matters.” But she did not elaborate on which policies she would like to see enacted in a post-Roe landscape.

A spokesperson for Skyhorse Publishing, the publisher of the book, did not respond to a request to confirm the book’s contents or supply an early copy.

One person close to Donald Trump, who insisted on anonymity and was not authorized to speak publicly, said the campaign had been aware that the video was being released, but suggested that it was an attempt by Melania Trump to sell her book and not part of a coordinated effort to soften the former president’s image. The person noted that she and her husband do not always take the same views.

In an interview with Fox News, Donald Trump said that his wife had discussed the issue with him and that he had told her, “‘You have to write what you believe.’”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .