Amelia Cropley
Melania Trump claims the government should stay away from reproductive rights: but what happens when the government is her husband? With the upcoming US elections nearing, there is another political stance that we need to be addressing: that of Melania Trump. In a promotional video for her forthcoming self-titled memoir Melania, she shockingly stated ‘There is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth.’ And while her opinions are the consensus throughout the feminist perspective, her proximity to the Republican party and their anti-abortion laws pose the biggest question of all: how did her husband take this?
Melania, due to be released on the 24th of October, covers an array of topics, such as the instant infatuation she had for her husband, and the utter shock she endured as he survived an assassination attempt in July earlier this year. However, the most controversial of topics which was unexpected to surface is how the former First Lady declared her pro-choice vantage point on abortion rights, including late-term abortions, conflicting very entertainingly with Donald Trump’s more conservative, right-winged stance.
Since the news circulated of her memoir and its topics, it is not uncommon to admit the constant wonder of how politics infiltrates Mr and Mrs Trump’s relationship, or if politics takes a back seat in their marriage of two opposing political people. Since they met, Melania has claimed that Donald Trump has known about her views. However, after nineteen years of marriage, it appears she is unable to talk him out of his views on abortion and bodily rights. Even if he is accepting of his wife’s views, it is hard to imagine there is not some tension between Melania and the man who personally overturned Roe V Wade.
‘Women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government’
Project 2025 and its anti-abortion agenda aims to reject abortions as a part of healthcare, eliminate emergency contraception like the morning-after pill and increase the prices of contraceptives. Kamala Harris claimed during the presidential debate there would be a national monitoring of all pregnancies if Donald Trump were to take up the presidency again. But, Melania Trump feels so strongly against her husband’s views it seems remarkable they share a last name. The Guardian, who recently obtained a copy of the memoir, states that Melania Trump claims that abortion rights are vital and fundamental to all women, emphasizing the imperativeness in guaranteeing, ‘women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government.’
In her promotional black and white video, Melania claims there is, ‘no room to compromise’ with such fundamental rights, highlighting there is no room for her husband’s views on such matters. Maybe she found her soulmate in the 45th American President, but she must know her husband does not understand the word compromise, especially not in the heated topic at hand. And it is now when Melania breaks her supportive silence after rarely ever expressing her political views publiclly, firmly splitting away from her husband in this political battle.
‘Others have speculated that the timing of the book’s release is crucial to her husband’s election, giving Republicans support that pro-choice individuals can still vote for their party’
But more people than not are suspicious of the reasoning behind the release of her memoir, and wondering why now? Melania is not the first First Lady to confess her pro-choice perspective, but following that of Laura Bush, who disagreed with the overturning of Roe V Wade back in 2000, and Barbara Bush. The debut author claimed she believed it important to show her perspective and some interested individuals have gone as far as saying Melania loathes her husband, which could be supported more at the release of her memoir, but would the dogmatic former president allow her to put this into the eye of the public? Others have speculated that the timing of the book’s release is crucial to her husband’s election, giving Republicans support that pro-choice individuals can still vote for their party. It seems hard to believe he would freely tolerate his wife going so severely against his work.
Ultimately, the recurring question is how Melania Trump can be both Trump’s wife and a devoted believer in women’s rights and bodily autonomy. How can her attraction overcome such monumental beliefs? It is a circulating question which is most likely down to the interpretation of the reader of her new memoir, and the truth existing only behind closed doors, but with the information we have, and what is to come with the release of Melania at the end of October, it may just be the next American scandal waiting to happen.
Amelia Cropley
Features image courtesy of Brett Styles via Pexels. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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