Melania Trump is not the only first lady to express pro-choice views. She joins several former Republican first ladies who have shared similar perspectives in their memoirs and elsewhere, despite positions that have historically been antithetical to the party's platform.
other spouses of Republican presidents, Pat Nixon etc.Betty Ford, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, and Laura Bush are all recorded as having expressed pro-choice views during or after their husbands were in office.
“I feel very strongly that it was the best thing in the world for the Supreme Court to legalize abortion and, in my words, take it out of the hinterlands and put it in proper hospitals.” Betty Ford said in a statement. Interview on CBS News' “60 Minutes'' in 1975, two years after Roe v. Wade was decided.
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Melania Trump arrives for the fourth day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 18, 2024. (Reuters/Gina Moon)
Following Ford's comments about premarital sex, marijuana and abortion in a CBS interview, then-President Gerald Ford reportedly joked that she cost him his vote.
Nancy Reagan, a more conservative first lady, avoided taking a public stance against abortion that conflicted with former President Ronald Reagan. However, she later clarified her personal position on the issue.
President Reagan: “I am against abortion and do not believe in abortion.'' at George Washington University in 1994.Five years after her husband left the Oval Office. “On the other hand, I believe in women's choice. So I'm somewhere in the middle, but I don't know what to call it.”
Barbara Bush, wife of former President George H.W. Bush, was more reserved in her public statements on abortion, at odds with her husband's anti-abortion stance. She was less outspoken than Betty Ford, writing in her 1994 memoir, “I hate abortion, but I couldn't make that choice for anyone else.”
Former First Lady Laura Bush, wife of former President George W. Bush and daughter-in-law of Barbara Bush, also disagreed with former President Bush on abortion.
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Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, former First Lady Barbara Bush. (AP)
“I think it's important that it stays legal because I think it's important to people for medical reasons and other reasons,” she said in a 2010 interview on Larry King Live.
Pat Nixon, wife of then-President Richard Nixon, told reporters at a 1972 press conference while the Supreme Court was considering Roe v. Wade that she supported the right to choose abortion, but that “I am opposed to mass abortion on demand.” ”
playing cardsThe wife of Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump has written a memoir, “Melania,” which is scheduled to be published on October 8, according to Amazon's release date. In the book, she expresses a perspective largely consistent with that of previous first ladies, according to a preview by the Guardian.
“It is imperative that we guarantee women the autonomy to decide whether to have children based on their own beliefs, free from interference or pressure from the government,” Trump wrote.
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President George H.W. Bush (left) and First Lady Barbara Bush reunite with former White House colleagues former President Ronald Reagan and former first lady Nancy Reagan during the Republican National Convention. April 1992 convention. (Getty)
“Why should someone other than women themselves have the power to decide what to do with their bodies? A woman’s fundamental right, personal freedom over her own life, does not give women the right to Empower. abort her pregnancy If she wants.
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“Restricting a woman's right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying a woman control over her own body. I have held this belief all my adult life. I continued.”
The former first lady drew criticism from pro-life advocates on social media after excerpts were released just a month before Election Day. The Republican Party's official platform also softened its language on abortion this year, after former President Trump also said he did not support a federal abortion ban.
