This past weekend, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted a number of videos to her Instagram Stories, outlining the process of freezing her eggs — a fertility treatment that is growing in popularity among millennials.
Ever the pragmatist, the New York congresswoman also addressed the financial dimensions, detailing the time it took to save up enough money for the series of fertility procedures, noting that — despite being a member of Congress — her insurance would not cover any portion of the cost to do so.
Explaining further in an interview with ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday, she said the choice is one she made “to feel in more control of [her] life.”
“In this political environment where this administration is denying reproductive care to women across the country, from abortion rights to the ability to carry out a healthy pregnancy, I think it’s important for us as leaders to have these conversations and share these processes, especially for working women across the country and normalize them,” she said.
When it comes to her reproductive choices, Ocasio-Cortez does not need to give explanations to the public, period. Still, the announcement comes at a particularly charged political moment, one that is increasingly dangerous for women writ large.
“In an administration that is dedicated to politicizing women’s bodies and taking our choices away from us and punishing us around decisions to be pregnant, or not pregnant. We’re gonna take our power back,” she added.
“Frankly, this administration has made pregnancy more dangerous than probably at any point in the last 30-plus years.”
Her family-planning process works in tandem with her ambitions to seek higher office — a move that has, as expected, inspired widespread comment and critique across both sides of the political aisle. Also as expected, right-wing gadflies criticized her decision as a shrewd play for virality while she mulls over the idea of a presidential run.
Daily Wire firebrand Matt Walsh, who is not Ocasio-Cortez’s medical doctor but offered his opinion anyway, was “baffled” by the idea that at 36, she would opt to plan for a family, and that she was already past the age of considering having children. “Totally backwards and ridiculous,” he wrote on X.
In her original posts, Ocasio-Cortez never explicitly said whether she plans on having children after freezing her eggs — while acknowledging that the public would come to their own conclusions about her choice.
“If one woman wants to preserve her right to have children, which means more than having none — we should celebrate that,” Katie Miller, the right-wing podcaster and wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, wrote on X. “If she inspires other women to have babies, we should celebrate that.”
To be clear, however, Miller’s post is absolutely not a surprising move to the left. The Millers are obsessed with declining birth rates to a conspiratorial degree, and espouse views on the topic that are often racist and which point to birth control and feminism as its root cause.
The Millers demonstrated an interesting divergence among conservatives and the right in general. When it comes to fertility, many are not aligned with fellow conservatives who see reproductive procedures like egg-freezing as immoral. In a bizarre, back-handed sort of way, they even appear supportive.
“Everyone’s journey to motherhood is different,” Katie Miller wrote in her post on X. “just as each of us mothers differently. I can’t wait to see how motherhood changes AOC.”
To AOC’s credit, she knew the backlash would ensue and seemed at peace with that fact. “If people want to make assumptions about my decision,” she said on Instagram Saturday, “let them.”
On Tuesday, she resumed posting about this process, delving into the physical aspects and medical procedures required along the way in a 10-minute-long vlog. “Today I attempt to discuss what is happening biologically in the egg freezing process … what each of these shots do, and side effects thus far,” she said.
As the youngest woman elected to Congress — who is growing and evolving transparently on a public stage — the act is a particularly meaningful one for Latinas as well. As De Los writer Alex Zaragoza wrote recently, “Latinx women, and other birthing individuals, who are 35 or older and going through the fertility process deeply understand the price of time and the deeper cultural pressure that comes with it.”
Whatever her motivations for sharing this content, to share her journey in a no-nonsense way — without shying away from the financially and physically taxing realities of egg retrieval — is remarkably impactful, especially in this fraught political moment.
The post By freezing her eggs, AOC shows a generation of young Latinas the cost of political power appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
