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, often in their memoirs, despite this stance historically contrasting with the GOP platform.
Other spouses of Republican presidents, such as Pat Nixon, Betty Ford, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush and Laura Bush, have been recorded either during or after their husbands’ tenure in office expressing pro-choice views.
“I feel very strongly that it was the best thing in the world when the Supreme Court voted to legalize abortion and, in my words, bring it out of the backwoods and put it in the hospital where it belongs,” Betty Ford said in a CBS News’ “60 Minutes” interview in 1975, two years after Roe v. Wade was handed down.
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Melania Trump arrives on Day 4 of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 18, 2024. (REUTERS/Jeenah Moon)
Following Ford’s comments on premarital sex, marijuana and abortion during the CBS interview, then-President Gerald Ford reportedly joked that she had cost him votes.
As a more conservative first lady, Nancy Reagan avoided taking a public stance against abortion that would put her at odds with former President Ronald Reagan. However, she later revealed her personal position on the issue.
“I’m against abortion, I don’t believe in abortion,” Reagan said at George Washington University in 1994, five years after her husband left the Oval Office. “On the other hand, I believe in a woman’s choice. So, it puts me somewhere in the middle, but I don’t know what you’d call that.”
Barbara Bush, former President George H. W. Bush’s wife, was more reserved in her public statements about abortion and was at odds with her husband’s anti-abortion stance. While she was not as outspoken as Betty Ford, she wrote in her 1994 memoir, “I hate abortions, but I just could not make that choice for someone else.”
Former first lady Laura Bush, wife of former President George W. Bush and daughter-in-law to Barbara Bush, also differed with the former Presidents Bush on abortion.
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Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, former first lady Barbara Bush. (The Associated Press)
“I think it’s important that it remain legal, because I think it’s important for people for medical reasons and other reasons,” she said in an interview with Larry King Live in 2010.
Pat Nixon, then-President Richard Nixon’s wife, told reporters during a 1972 press conference – as Roe v. Wade arguments were being considered by the Supreme Court – that she supported the right to choose an abortion, but opposed “wholesale abortion on demand.”
“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,” Trump reportedly wrote.
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President George H.W. Bush, left, and first lady Barbara Bush reunite with former White House mates, former President Ronald Reagan and former first lady Nancy Reagan during the Republican National. Convention in April 1992. (Getty)
“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.
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“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.”
The former first lady drew criticism from pro-life advocates on social media after the excerpts were published just a month away from Election Day. This year, the Republican Party’s official platform also softened its language on abortion, as former President Trump also said he would not support a federal abortion ban.
