Melania Trump has reportedly defended the right to abortion in her upcoming memoir, writing that “restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body”.

Her husband Donald Trump has come under scrutiny for his stance on abortion, having previously signalled support for a national ban beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy.

His current position is to back states to decide abortion laws and support exceptions to a ban in the case of rape, incest or danger to the mother’s life.

However, Mrs Trump, who served as first lady during her husband’s previous stint in the White House, has reportedly laid out her position in her memoir, entitled “Melania”.

According to The Guardian, which reports it has seen a copy ahead of publication next week, she writes that women should be “free from any intervention or pressure from the government”.

“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body,” she has written.

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

She also writes: “Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?”

A spokesperson for Mrs Trump has not yet responded to a request for comment.

This election is the first since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v Wade ruling, which ended a nearly 50-year constitutional right to abortion in the US.

Since then, nearly two dozen US states have banned or limited access to the procedure.

Mr Trump previously said he was “proudly the person responsible” for the court overturning the ruling in 2022 – which had protected a right to abortion at up to around 24 to 28 weeks – as judges he appointed while president won the vote.

He has also falsely claimed that Democrats support abortion after the baby is born.

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The rival Democrat campaign views abortion rights as an issue for candidate Kamala Harris to use against the former president.

A spokesperson for 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”.

A couple who suffered serious injuries in a crash while in an Uber have been told they cannot sue the firm – because they previously agreed to terms for Uber Eats.

Georgia and John McGinty, from New Jersey, tried to sue the taxi service company in a complaint on 23 February 2023 after an Uber driver “ran a red light and t-boned a vehicle”, according to court documents.

Mrs McGinty needed “numerous surgeries” after suffering cervical and spine fractures, a protruding hernia and injuries to her pelvic floor.

Her husband sustained a fractured sternum and has diminished use in his left wrist, following the crash on 31 March 2022.

However, the Superior Court of New Jersey has ruled terms they agreed to on 8 January 2022 – which the couple said was approved by their daughter while ordering food – are “valid”.

The court highlighted part of the conditions, which states that “incidents or accidents resulting in personal injury to you or anyone else that you allege occurred in connection with your use of services… will be settled by binding individual arbitration between you and Uber, and not in a court of law”.

The ruling added: “We hold that the arbitration provision contained in the agreement under review, which Georgia or her minor daughter, while using her cell phone agreed to, is valid and enforceable.”

Arbitration allows people to settle disputes without going to court and generally involves a neutral arbitrator who reviews arguments before making a binding decision.

Mr and Mrs McGinty may appeal against the decision to the state’s Supreme Court, their lawyers suggested to Law&Crime, a US-based news publication.

In a statement to the same website, the couple said: “We are horrified at what the court’s decision suggests: A large corporation like Uber can avoid being sued in a court of law by injured consumers because of contractual language buried in a dozen-page-long user agreement concerning services unrelated to the one that caused the consumers’ injuries.”

They added: “Here, the content, format, and presentation – dozens of pages on an iPhone screen during a food delivery order – make it impossible that anyone could understand what rights they were potentially waiving or how drastic the consequences could be.”

Law&Crime reports Uber said the court “concluded that on multiple occasions the plaintiff herself – not her teenage daughter – agreed to Uber’s Terms of Use, including the arbitration agreement”.

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The case is reminiscent of Disney’s recent bid to throw out a wrongful death claim because the accuser signed up for a one-month trial of its streaming service Disney+.

Disney said the first page of its subscriber agreement states “any dispute between You and Us… is subject to a class action waiver and must be resolved by individual binding arbitration”.

Uber has been approached for comment.

Britons are healthier than Americans but are more likely than their stateside counterparts to think their health is poor, a new study has found. 

Almost 10,000 British people, as well as more than 5,000 US adults, in their 30s and 40s took part in the study by academics from the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies, University of Oxford, Syracuse University and University of North Carolina.

The research found adults in the US were more likely to have high cholesterol and high blood pressure, while 40% of Americans were obese compared to 34.5% of Britons.

But 18% of British adults reported their health as poor compared to 12% of adults in the US.

Britons were also more likely to smoke daily – 28% compared to 21% in the US cohort.

The researchers said the health of the US “acts as a warning” of what Britain could be like without the “safety net” of the NHS.

Dr Charis Bridger Staatz, of the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies, said that the differences in the health of the two countries may be down to “levels of exercise, diets and poverty, and limited access to free healthcare”.

“Given political and social similarities between the US and Britain, the US acts as a warning of what the state of health could be like in Britain without the safety net of the NHS and a strong welfare system.”

Professor George Ploubidis, of the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies, warned that the findings – published in the International Journal of Epidemiology – “should not distract” from levels of obesity and high blood pressure in Britain.

“In some ways, these findings could be seen to paint a positive picture for the nation, as the health of adults in Britain is better than that in the USA,” he said.

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“Nevertheless, this research should not distract us from the fact that more than a third of British adults are obese and a fifth have high blood pressure in midlife.

“The new government’s pledges to cut NHS waiting times will be severely tested if this and future generations continue to age in poor health.”

The study also found that inequalities were typically wider in the US, with larger health differences between the poorest and wealthiest ends of society.

Dr Bridger Staatz said work to tackle health inequalities in Britain will be beneficial.

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“In both Britain and the US, public health policies tend to focus on improving health awareness and behaviours in childhood or older age.

“However, intervening in midlife offers a great opportunity to promote healthier ageing.

“In the wake of Lord Darzi’s report into the state of the NHS, it is encouraging to hear the new prime minister prioritising a 10-year programme of reform for the health service.

“Long-term planning and investment in the NHS will likely help improve the health disparities we see in the UK and prevent the emergence of inequalities on the same scale as we see in the US. This will not only help to improve population health across life but create a happier and more prosperous society.”