Melania Trump received criticism from pro-life supporters after The Guardian shared an excerpt from her new memoir, supporting abortion without limitations. “Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?” wrote the former First Lady. “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.” She also shared her support for abortion on X.

In an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Melania stated that her husband has been aware of her opinions since the two met. The former president’s abortion views have somewhat waffled throughout the years, with Trump criticizing heartbeat bills, stating he supports exceptions for abortions, and stating he would not support a federal abortion ban. “He knew my position since the day we met, and I believe in individual freedom. I want to decide what I want to do with my body. I don’t want government in my personal business,” she told the show. Donald Trump stated he supported his wife being honest about her position. “We spoke about it and I said, ‘You have to write what you believe — I’m not going to tell you what to do.’ I said, ‘You have to stick with your heart.’ I’ve said that to everybody: ‘You have to go with your heart.’ There are some people that are very, very far-right on the issue, meaning without exceptions. And then there are other people that view it a little bit differently than that.”

Pro-life supporters, who have been grappling with the GOP’s growing liberal stance on abortion throughout the election, lamented Melania Trump’s support for it. Lila Rose, founder of the pro-life group Live Action, blasted Melania on X. “’Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth.’  Who is this Melania Trump, or Kamala Harris? Functionally the same exact position on abortion,” she wrote. Rose has been extremely critical of Donald Trump’s push for a more “moderate” approach to abortion from the GOP and has even noted to her followers that she may not vote for Trump in November due to his support of abortion. Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life Action, told The Catholic News Agency that Mrs. Trump was forgetting a fundamental truth: “the bottom line is that it’s not just her body in that moment… Two people or maybe more are there.” Robert P. George, a legal scholar at Princeton University and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, theorized that Melania, who mainly remained silent on her political opinions during Trump’s presidency, may have been sent out by the Trump campaign as a way to draw in pro-choice voters. “The campaign sent her out to signal to pro-abortion voters that the ‘right to abortion’ would be fully protected in a second Trump administration,” he suggested. “Her message is that Donald, having thrown pro-life Americans under the bus, will keep us under the bus.”