AFPMelania Trump
NOS Nieuws•gisteren, 23:45
Former first lady Melania Trump defends the right to abortion. In doing so, she expresses a different point of view than her husband Donald Trump. “Individual freedom is a fundamental right that I safeguard. Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise,” she said in a statement video op X.
The statements come a few days before the release of the biography of the wife of the American Republican presidential candidate, in which she also advocates the right to self-determination for women. The British newspaper The Guardian has already seen the book.
Her husband previously took an opposite position: Trump said at an anti-abortion event in 2020 that he wants to protect the right of every born and unborn child “so they can fulfill their God-given promise.”
No more national law
During his presidency, Trump appointed three conservative justices to the US Supreme Court, after which the nationwide right to abortion was abolished in 2022.
Since then, the American states have been allowed to decide and in a number of states abortion is now severely restricted or even completely banned. Still, Trump says he would not support a nationwide abortion ban under any circumstances.
Although he is not in favor of a national ban, it is a completely different position than that of his wife Melania. On this point, he shares the same position as Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Republican division
There is division among Republicans over abortion. For example, vice presidential candidate Vance is outspoken against abortion, but Trump wants states to decide for themselves how they think about it. Vance recently said Republicans have a credibility problem on this issue and need to regain voter trust on the issue.
Amerika-correspondent Rudy Bouma:
“It is an October surprise that you often see in the run-up to the American elections. A topic to turn things upside down. Melania Trump has been very absent from the campaign so far. She was only briefly at the Republican convention and now this .
Some see it as a masterstroke, a way to attract hesitant female voters to the Republicans, but it is mainly amazement that predominates. Abortion is an extremely important election issue, in addition to migration and rising prices.
Since it has become clear that conservative women also have difficulty with the strict legislation, Trump says he is against a national ban on abortion. To the dissatisfaction of yet another part of the supporters: the Christian Republicans would actually like to see a national ban.
It’s a slap in the face to Trump. Melania uses the word freedom and that word is the slogan of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Melania’s statement does not contribute to the clarity of the Republican message.”
