Melania Trump's pro-choice stand isn't that different from other Republican first ladies

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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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