Melania Trump splits with husband on abortion as she speaks out: 'I have carried this belief my entire life'
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump is joined on stage by wife Melania
Reuters
Melania Trump has come out in favour of a woman's right to abortion in a split from her husband, Donald Trump, who backs the ability for US states to restrict the procedure.
The former First Lady was writing in her upcoming memoir that is due to be published four weeks before the November 5 Presidential election, in which her husband faces Democrat Kamala Harris.
The Guardian reports her as saying: "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."
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump is joined on stage by wife Melania
Reuters
Former President Trump had previously signaled support for a national ban beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy.
However, in April, he said political considerations were paramount in the first presidential election since the US Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, ending a nearly 50-year federal right to the procedure.
Trump says abortion laws should be decided by the states and backs exceptions to a ban on abortion in the case of rape, incest and to protect the mother's life.
Democrats see abortion rights as a popular issue for Harris to use against Trump. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from August 21-28 found a majority of voters, including 34 per cent of Republicans, want the next president to protect or increase abortion access.
LATEST IN THE RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE 2024
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump pumps a fist during a campaign stop in Milwaukee
Reuters
Kamala Harris helps out at a food distribution centre in Augusta, Georgia,
Reuters
A spokesperson from the Harris campaign said: "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."
Meanwhile, Vice President Harris has come under fire from Arab-American and Muslim voters angry at US support for Israel's offensive in Gaza, with many backing third party Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
President Joe Biden won most of the 2020 Muslim and Arab votes, but their backing of Democrats has fallen sharply during nearly a year that Israel has been fighting Hamas in Gaza. Activists say Biden and Harris have done too little to stop Israel's military campaign in the Palestinian enclave.
A Council on American-Islamic Relations data released last month based on a late August poll showed that in Michigan, home to a large Arab American community, 40 per cent of Muslim voters backed the Green Party's Stein. Republican candidate Donald Trump got 18 per cent with Harris, who is President Joe Biden's vice president, trailing at 12 per cent.
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein
Getty
Elsewhere, in a court filing made public this week, prosecutors said Trump was acting outside the scope of his duties as president when he pressured state officials and then-Vice President Mike Pence to try to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
The 165-page filing is likely the last opportunity for prosecutors to detail their case against Trump before the November 5 election given there will not be a trial before Americans go to the polls.
The filing is meant to keep the federal criminal election subversion case against the Republican presidential candidate moving forward following a July US Supreme Court ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for their official actions in office.
The filing includes an allegation that a White House staffer heard Trump tell family members that "it doesn't matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell."