Melania Trump is said to have expressed support for abortion rights in her forthcoming memoir, according to reports on Wednesday, in what may seem conflicting views on the key US election issue with her husband, Donald Trump.

The wife of the Republican presidential nominee wrote that it is “important to ensure that women can exercise their own will in choosing whether or not to have children, in line with their faith, without any coercion or blackmail from the state”, the newspaper says.

Her comments contrast with Trump’s position that the US states should be allowed to determine their abortion limitation.

Abortion will be one of the major issues in the November 5 elections, and according to the polls, Democrat Kamala Harris is in an enviable position ahead of Trump when voters are asked if he has a right to decide an abortion for a woman.

“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to decide what she does with her own body?” Melania wrote: “A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, gives her the right to terminate her pregnancy if she so decides.”.

“That is the same as refusing her power over her body. Since I have adopted this conception as my own, it has stayed with me from when I was an adult throughout my life,” she said, according to The Guardian, which said it had accessed a copy of the memoir before its publication next Tuesday.

Donald Trump often boasts on the campaign trail that three Supreme Court picks he made made it possible for the overturning of the national right to abortion in 2022. At least 20 states have since enacted full or partial restrictions, with Georgia banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.