Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 4, 2024 / 17:15 pm (CNA).
Former first lady Melania Trump has stirred criticism from the pro-life movement after sharing her pro-abortion views in her upcoming memoir and in a video message on X.
In her self-titled memoir “Melania,” set to be released Oct. 8, one month before Election Day, the former first lady writes about her life, her family, her time in the White House, and briefly about her support for legal abortion. Some excerpts from the book were published by The Guardian on Wednesday evening.
“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,” Melania Trump, the second Catholic first lady in American history, wrote in the autobiographical book.
“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?” Melania Trump added. “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,” she wrote. “I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”
On Thursday, Melania Trump doubled down on this position in a video posted on X, which advertised the memoir.
“Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth: individual freedom,” she said. “What does ‘my body, my choice’ really mean?”
Former president Donald Trump, who faces Vice President Kamala Harris in his bid for a second nonconsecutive term in the White House, responded to his wife’s comments without endorsing them or disavowing them.
“We spoke about it and I said, ‘You have to write what you believe — I’m not going to tell you what to do,’” Donald Trump told Fox News reporter Bill Melugin.
“I said, ‘You have to stick with your heart,’” Donald Trump added. “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 movement responds to Melania Trump
Many leaders in the pro-life movement have expressed frustration over Melania Trump’s abortion comments. Some pro-life advocates are still focused on securing a Donald Trump victory over Harris, while others are expressing dismay over the campaign’s movement away from pro-life values.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement provided to CNA that the organization’s top priority “is to defeat Kamala Harris and the Democrats’ push to nationally mandate no-limits abortion on demand funded by every taxpayer.”
However, Dannenfelser still took issue with Melania Trump’s comments, saying: “Women with unplanned pregnancies are crying out for more resources, not more abortions.”
“We must have compassion for them and for babies in the womb who suffer from brutal abortions,” she added. “Tens of thousands of abortions a year are performed on children after the point when they can feel excruciating pain.”
Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life Action, told CNA that “the bottom line is that it’s not just her body in that moment” when a woman is pregnant, adding: “Two people or maybe more are there.”
“Melania Trump had a chance to inspire in her book but, instead, chose to push broken feminism that puts women at war with their own bodies,” Hawkins continued. “I won’t be buying a copy of the book.”
Some pro-life activists have offered harsher criticism of Donald Trump’s campaign after Melania Trump’s comments.
Live Action President Lila Rose asserted in a post on X that Melania Trump and Harris have “functionally the same exact position on abortion.” In late August, Rose indicated she might not vote for Donald Trump because his campaign has not been pro-life enough.
Robert P. George, a legal scholar at Princeton University and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said in a Facebook post that he shared with CNA that he believes Melania Trump’s abortion comments were prompted by Donald Trump’s campaign.
“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,” George said. “Her message is that Donald, having thrown pro-life Americans under the bus, will keep us under the bus.”
“Her record has been one of saying little or nothing on political issues,” he continued. “Now, suddenly, she is releasing videos passionately claiming that the protection of abortion, even late-term abortion, must be given the highest priority. Things like that don’t just happen.”
George told CNA that he believes Harris is “even worse on abortion” and “appallingly awful” on the issue.
Where the candidates stand on abortion
Donald Trump appointed three of the six Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, which allowed states to restrict abortion and pass pro-life laws. In his 2024 campaign, the former president has sought to moderate the Republican Party’s approach to abortion and has attempted the difficult task of maintaining support from the pro-life voting bloc without alienating independents and moderates.
Earlier this week, he said in a post on X he would veto any legislation that would prohibit abortion “because it is up to the states to decide, based on the will of their voters.” He asserted that Democrats support the “radical position of late-term abortion … in the seventh, eighth, or ninth month [of pregnancy].”
Harris supports a federal law that would legalize abortion nationwide — at least until the point of viability, which occurs around the 23rd or 24th week of pregnancy. She has not said whether she supports restrictions on late-term abortion.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, signed a bill that further solidifies the state’s abortion laws, which permit abortion throughout the entirety of pregnancy, including in the ninth month, for any reason. He signed another bill that scaled back legal protections in the case of an infant who is born alive after a failed abortion attempt.
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Enough with the political posturing of the Catholic News Agency.
If the Catholic Church in the USA and its bishops want to do something credible about abortion they should try the following novel idea.
Every diocese should fund billboards and advertising with this message: “Thinking of going for an abortion? First contact any Catholic parish and they will help you.”
Then every parish in every diocese should identify 3-4 parishioners trained to counsel and authorized to provide material help to women who are pregnant and who make contact. This way the Church would be doing something concrete to stop the murder of the innocents and not just issuing press statements that are simply political posturings.
As far as providing referrals to agencies who can provide long-term material aid, crisis pregnancy centers are probably more equipped to do that, as it involves keeping up with a myriad of federal, state, and local government programs and local charities. But Catholic parishes can and should provide some immediate aid, and referrals to crisis pregnancy centers through the parish secretary at the least, and some should be able to provide some counseling and accompaniment as well.
That’s all much easier to do with single-income households where the wife has a bit more flexibility to do such things.
Google tends to exclude crisis pregnancy centers, unless they are specifically searched for.
I’m more saddened to hear this than frustrated but I think the reality is that we’ve had no prolife First Lady at least since Roe. So this is just more of the status quo.
Why does the Church have an anti-abortion stance? It didn’t come from the Bible. The Bible makes it clear than an unborn child is property, not a life. Further, and the reason I left the church, is their prohibition against birth control. 1. When people did take that seriously, it was horrific for both the parents and the children. 2. The Church doesn’t begin to enforce it, despite the fact they consider it a MORTAL sin to use birth control. Yet more than 90% of all first world Catholics have no more than three children. If the Church believed their own proscription against birth control, they would be preaching against it in Mass constantly (not rarely) given almost all Catholics refuse to abide by it. My friends were all fine about lying to the priests about their use of birth control when going through pre-Cana. But I’m not a good hypocrite, especially when it comes to my relationship with Christ.