Ivanka Trump says she is 'unapologetically' anti-abortion

• Ivanka Trump said she is "pro-life, and unapologetically so" in an interview with RealClearPolitics published Thursday.
• Trump was once touted as the "liberal hope" who many believed could counter many of her father President Donald Trump's views, including his anti-abortion stance.
• In 2018, it was reported she and her husband met with the president of Planned Parenthood to ask that they quit providing abortion services to maintain public funding.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Ivanka Trump finally came out publicly as anti-abortion.

In an interview with RealClearPolitics published Thursday, Trump said, "I am pro-life, and unapologetically so."

"I respect all sides of a very personal and sensitive discussion," she told reporter Philip Wegmann, "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."

Trump has long presented herself as an advocate for women: She made female economic empowerment and women in the workplace a central part of her platform prior to her father's election and over the last four years as one of his top White House advisors.

—Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) August 26, 2018

In the 2016 election cycle, Trump was touted as the "liberal hope" who many believed would work to counter many of her father President Donald Trump's stances, including abortion — despite any encouragement from her.

In November 2017 and again in response to the Trump administration's hugely unpopular family separations immigration policy in August 2018, social media users flocked to a viral "Dear Ivanka" Instagram campaign thinking she would be able to convince her father to change his views. One artist who followed her on Instagram told the New Yorker it was because she is "the most sympathetic, the softer side of Trumpism."

But contrary to the public's expectations and her self-touted advocacy for women, Trump frequently dodged questions on abortion.

President Donald Trump's position on the issue has vacillated over the years. In the 1990s, he was "very pro-choice." During the 2016 election, Trump went as far as to say "there has to be some form of punishment" for women who choose abortion, a statement he shortly walked back after much backlash.

At the 2016 Forbes Women's Summit, when commenting on her father's changing views on abortion, she emphasized he is "real" and "with him, what you see is what you get," Marie Claire reported.

Americans' stances on abortion have grown more polarized since Roe v. Wade made the medical procedure legal nationwide in 1973. A Gallup poll conducted in May of this year found 48% supported abortion rights and 46% did not.

Throughout his presidency and leading up to his re-election campaign, the president has doubled down on his position against abortion. He distanced himself from restrictive abortion laws and made clear that he is "strongly pro-life with the exceptions of rape, incest, and protecting the life of the mother." Early this year, he became the first president to speak at the March for Life, standing alongside anti-abortion activists. He recently nominated Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who has a record of signing on an anti-abortion ad and could potentially tip the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.

As for Ivanka Trump, Politico reported in 2017 that she had secretly met with Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, to gain a better understanding of the organization, although Planned Parenthood advocates criticized her for her silence on the matter. In 2018, Richards later wrote that Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner met with her again in 2018, a meeting in which Richards felt they made an offer which felt like a "bribe," according to an excerpt published in People magazine.

Richards later told Business Insider's Rich Feloni that Kushner "wanted us to quit providing abortion services to women in this country in exchange for keeping our public funding."

Now days ahead of the election that will determine whether her father will retain his presidency, Trump has made clear that she mirrors her father's perspective when it comes to abortion rights.

• Read more:
• From rich kid to first daughter: The life of Ivanka Trump
• Celebrities are calling out Ivanka Trump on Instagram over the family separation policy with a new 'Dear Ivanka' campaign
• Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump threatened to sue an anti-Trump super PAC for putting up billboards showing them smiling next to the US COVID-19 death toll
• Donald Trump plugs Ivanka as the first female president claiming Kamala Harris is 'not competent' enough for the top job