One of America’s leading anti-abortion groups is criticizing former first lady Melania Trump for her defense of abortion rights in her forthcoming memoir, saying that Mrs. Trump is echoing the talking points of “the abortion industry.” The former, and potentially next, first lady laid out a passionate defense of abortion rights in the book that sounds more like it came from Vice President Harris than it does Mrs. Trump’s own husband.

The president of the anti-abortion rights group, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Marjorie Dannenfelser, tells the New York Sun that while her organization is still dedicated to defeating Ms. Harris in November, Mrs. Trump’s comments are unfortunate.

“In her comments on abortion, First Lady Melania Trump calls abortion ‘freedom.’ However, most women say their abortion was coerced, unwanted, or inconsistent with their own preferences. Women with unplanned pregnancies are crying out for more resources, not more abortions,” Ms. Dannenfelser tells the Sun. “We must have compassion for them and for babies in the womb who suffer from brutal abortions.” 

“There is no evidence that later abortions are mostly for medical reasons as the First Lady and the abortion industry claim,” the SBA Pro-Life America president says.

However, Mrs. Dannenfelser noted that her “priority is to defeat Kamala Harris and the Democrats’ push to nationally mandate no-limits abortion on demand funded by every taxpayer.”

Mrs. Trump’s new book — simply titled “Melania” — will go on sale on October 8. After sitting for two interviews about the memoir with Fox News in recent days, CNN says they requested their own meeting with Mrs. Trump. The cable news giant says Mrs. Trump’s publisher then asked for $250,000 in exchange for the former first lady’s time. 

According to an excerpt of her memoir first obtained by the Guardian, Mrs. Trump makes the argument that no government — local, state, or federal — has any role in restricting a woman’s right to choose. She calls it “imperative” that America “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.”

“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,” Mrs. Trump reportedly writes. 

“I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life,” she adds. 

SBA Pro-Life America is seen as one of the most influential anti-abortion groups in the nation, if not the most influential. Their annual galas draw conservative luminaries and thinkers, as well as Republican candidates seeking to network and get the coveted SBA Pro-Life America endorsement.

In the last ten years, the organization has spent tens of millions of dollars on campaigns across the country. President Trump and Vice President Pence both headlined SBA Pro-Life America galas during their time in the White House, and just in 2022, several senators spoke at their Campaign for Life gala. 

The group has had a difficult relationship with Trump in the past, however, despite his success in appointing the three Supreme Court justices who were instrumental in overturning Roe v. Wade. 

When he launched his 2024 campaign, Trump promised to leave the abortion rights issue up to the states, and refused to sign SBA Pro-Life America’s Republican primary candidate pledge to endorse a federal law banning abortion beyond 16 weeks of pregnancy.