Melania Trump has revealed her support for abortion rights – a view on the crucial election issue that is in stark contrast to her husband Donald Trump and much of the Republican party.
In a video posted to her X account on Thursday morning, the former first lady defended women's "individual freedoms" to do what they want with their bodies.
"Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard," she said in the video.
"Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth: individual freedom. What does 'my body, my choice' really mean?"
The video appears to confirm excerpts of her self-titled memoir reported by The Guardian on Wednesday.
The former fist lady's views conflict with the GOP's anti-abortion platform and with Donald Trump, who has repeatedly taken credit for appointing the three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v Wade and boasted about returning the abortion question to the states.
In her memoir, she argues that the decision to end a pregnancy should be left to a woman and her doctor, "free from any intervention of pressure from the government", according to the published excerpts.
"Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?" she wrote, according to The Guardian.
"A woman's fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes."
Melania Trump writes that she has "carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life".
Ms Trump has rarely publicly expressed her personal political views and has been largely absent from the campaign trail.
Last week, she sat down with Fox for her first interview in more than two years.
Abortion rights a key election issue
Democrats have blamed the former president for the severe deterioration of reproductive rights as abortion bans were implemented in large swaths of the country following the overturning of the landmark case, which had granted a constitutional right to abortion.
The national anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America denounced the former first lady's views on abortion, including her comments on abortion later in pregnancy, but said their "priority is to defeat Kamala Harris".
"Women with unplanned pregnancies are crying out for more resources, not more abortions," the organisation's president Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement to the AP.
"We must have compassion for them and for babies in the womb who suffer from brutal abortions."
Vice-President Kamala Harris's campaign noted Trump's role in ending Roe v Wade in a statement reacting to Melania Trump's defence of abortion rights.
"Sadly for the women across America, Mrs Trump's husband firmly disagrees with her and is the reason that more than one in three American women live under a Trump Abortion Ban that threatens their health, their freedom, and their lives," Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.
"Donald Trump has made it abundantly clear: If he wins in November, he will ban abortion nationwide, punish women, and restrict women's access to reproductive health care."
Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would veto a federal abortion ban, the first time he has explicitly said so after previously refusing to answer questions on the subject.
Abortion rights advocates are sceptical, however, saying Trump cannot be trusted not to restrict reproductive rights.
Trump's campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday about Melania Trump's book or video.
Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said the memoir was another example of "the Trumps playing voters like a fiddle".
"As president, [Trump] made it his mission to get Roe v Wade overturned," she said in a statement.
"Melania stood by him, never once publicly disavowing his actions until weeks before an election where our bodies are again on the ballot and they are losing voters to this issue. Read between the lines."
Democratic strategist Brittany Crampsie told the Associated Press the memoir's release was a "clear attempt to appeal to more moderate voters and to moderate JD Vance's very clearly extreme views on the issue".
But she is sceptical that the move would work in favour of Trump, saying his shifting views "have already confused voters and sowed distrust".
Melania Trump also defends abortions later in pregnancy, asserting that "most abortions conducted during the later stages of pregnancy were the result of severe fetal abnormalities that probably would have led to the death or stillbirth of the child. Perhaps even the death of the mother," she writes.
"These cases were extremely rare and typically occurred after several consultations between the woman and her doctor."
While her husband, who has often parroted misinformation about abortions later in pregnancy, falsely claiming that Democrats support abortion "after birth", though infanticide is outlawed in every state.
Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law who focuses on reproductive rights law and history, said it was unclear if the memoir's release so close to the election was an attempt to help Donald Trump.
Donald Trump promoted his wife's book at a September rally in New York, calling on supporters to "go out and get her book".
It is unclear if the former president has read the book.
"Go out and buy it," he told the crowd.
"It's great. And if she says bad things about me, I'll call you all up, and I'll say, 'Don't buy it.'"
Opinion polls consistently show that a large majority of Americans support abortion rights.
ABC/wires
