Ivanka Trump says that parenthood has made her ‘unapologetically pro-life'

Ivanka Trump has announced that she is now pro-life, after years of keeping her beliefs secret — declaring that becoming a mother has made her “unapologetically” against abortion.

The 39-year-old daughter of the president has spent her time in the White House championing women’s rights: Working to promote maternity leave, in the only major country in the world where it is not guaranteed, and championing initiatives helping female entrepreneurs.

She had always remained tight-lipped on the issue of abortion but in an interview on Thursday, less than a week before the election, she announced that she had made up her mind.

“I respect all sides of a very personal and sensitive discussion,” she told Real Clear Politics. 

“But I am also a mother of three children, and parenthood affected me in a profound way in terms of how I think about these things.

“I am pro-life, and unapologetically so.”

Ms Trump went secretly with her husband Jared Kushner to meet the head of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, in January 2017.

Planned Parenthood provides women’s services such as cancer screenings, contraception and abortions. Of the 900,000 abortions every year in the US, about a third are carried out at Planned Parenthood facilities.

Ms Richards, in her 2018 memoir, said that the couple offered an increase in Planned Parenthood’s federal funding if the organisation stopped providing abortions.

“The main issue, he [Kushner] explained, was abortion,” Ms Richards wrote. 

“If Planned Parenthood wanted to keep our federal funding, we would have to stop providing abortions. He described his ideal outcome: a national headline reading ‘Planned Parenthood Discontinues Abortion Services.’”

Ms Richards wrote that Kushner told her to “move fast.” She said she declined Kushner’s proposal, saying: “It felt almost like a bribe.”

Ms Trump and her husband, both working in the White House, frequently post photos of themselves with their children - Arabella, nine; Joseph, six, and four-year-old Theodore.

While in New York her politics were unclear: Ivanka donated to both Hillary Clinton and John McCain’s campaigns, and hosted a fundraiser at her home, for Democratic senator Cory Booker.

Asked how she described herself, she replied, “a pragmatist when it comes to everything.”

She said that in her eyes, and in her father’s, politics is about people, not parties, and so she is “a Trump-Republican.”

She balked, however, at the description of her as a populist. 

“I think a lot of these labels, to be quite honest, are really limiting in terms of what you call yourself or how you identify,” she told the site. “But I don’t reject that label at all.”

Ms Trump has been campaigning hard for her father in the final weeks of the election, despite Mr Trump admitting that she would rather be at home with her childen.

“You know, Ivanka, you know, she’s great. She’s out campaigning today, doing really well,” said Mr Trump at a rally in Michigan on Tuesday. 

"Her husband’s here, Jared Kushner. He’s making peace in the Middle East. 

"He’s done something no one else has done; he’s making peace in the Middle East, without blood. Find Jared! He doesn’t want to be outside; he’s Mr Inside. 

“But Ivanka — she’d be very happy just being at home with the kids, but we’ve got her working.”