Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez opened up about her decision to freeze her eggs, and the move has MAGA fuming despite Republicans claiming to support fertility treatment in recent years.
The rising star of the Democratic Party took to Instagram over the weekend to share intimate details about her experience with the process, and the meltdown was fast and furious.
“AOC is freezing her eggs at 36 because she wants to try to “relate” to women when she runs for President in 2028. She knows freezing eggs at 36 when you’ve been engaged for 4 years is a lost cause," ranted MAGA influencer Laura Loomer on X.
She went on to call it a “political stunt” and “performative so she can relate to women” and so far as to claim the New York Democrat will “play the infertility card to be a victim.”
Loomer went on to post several more times about AOC, including writing, “Would have been easier to get married after being engaged for one year and then have a baby.”
She was one of multiple MAGA voices to rant about AOC’s decision despite Donald Trump declaring himself the “father of IVF” on the 2024 campaign trail in a bid to appeal to more women and working to cut some costs for some in-vitro fertilization medications since taking office.
Pro-MAGA Gunther Eagleman wrote about it on X while insisting he did not care, writing, “News: AOC is freezing her eggs! Me: Don’t care.”
Conservative writer Mollie Hemingway reshared a video of AOC taking one of her hormone injections, which is part of the egg freezing process, while criticizing the congresswoman.
“Ladies, get married to a good man as young as you’re able and have your babies and do it naturally,” she wrote. “This is a very sad public performance/display of unnecessarily unwise decision making.”
“The last thing this country needs right now is Frozen AOC Eggs,” wrote the MAGA account Catturd.
Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet claimed the message progressives were spreading about family formation is “one of the reasons why fertility rates are cratering.”
“AOC turns 37 in a few weeks so if she got pregnant tomorrow it would already be a geriatric pregnancy. This is not female “liberation,” it’s a cautionary tale," Kolvet wrote.
The backlash to Ocasio-Cortez’s decision to publicly share her egg freezing journey appeared to prove her own point to some extent.
In one of her multiple Instagram stories over the weekend, AOC slammed what she called “so much negative messaging that is directed toward women around our family choices.”
“Kind of no matter what choice you make, if you have kids, when you have kids, whatever, there’s so much negativity, and it is designed to disregulate women, to put us in a place of fear or insecurity so that we are making choices out of that place,” she said in one video. “We’re not doing that.”
One conservative commentator warned Republicans not to jump to quickly on attacking the congresswoman.
“Republicans: DO NOT take the AOC egg-freezing bait,” wrote Mehek Cooke. “We don’t know why anyone needs IVF. Mocking her age or fertility choices is cruel AND politically stupid. Keep your eye on the ball. Be the party that helps Americans build families.”
Katie Miller, wife of Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, also cautiously weighed in while still taking a dig at AOC and blasting what she referred to as the “feminist lie.”
“We have historically low birth rates worldwide. If one woman wants to preserve her right to have children, which means more than having none—we should celebrate that,” Miller wrote. “If she inspires other women to have babies, we should celebrate that. More women should get married and have babies younger, but too many women buy into the feminist lie and spend their childbearing years climbing the career ladder.”
“Everyone’s journey to motherhood is different, just as each of us mothers differently. I can’t wait to see how motherhood changes AOC,” she added.
The average age of women giving birth continues to rise, hitting nearly 30 in 2023, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published last year. The average for first-time moms also increased from 26.6 in 2016 to 27.5 in 2023.
Multiple factors have played into the reason why women are having babies later, including both innovations when it comes to fertility and decisions based on the increased cost of having and raising a child.
In her own Instagram stories, AOC spoke about the high cost of egg freezing and how it was paralyzing for her, also when she was working as a bartender in New York City.
She slammed the health care system for lacking fertility coverage but encouraged women who were interested in even taking a smal step in the process to get their fertility checked.
