New Delhi: A video announcement by Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about freezing her eggs has sparked an online conversation about reproductive choices and the politics around it. The 36-year-old lawmaker on Instagram shared the process, explaining why she believes it is important to talk about it openly, not just as a personal decision but also as a political one.
“An administration that is dedicated to politicising women’s bodies and taking our choices away from us and punishing us around decisions to be pregnant or not be pregnant. We’re going to take our power, and we have to talk about it,” Ocasio-Cortez said in her Instagram story.
In the video, she gives herself a hormone injection, before adding that it “wasn’t so bad.”
For Ocasio-Cortez, this was not a decision taken on a whim, adding that she had weighed it for a long time and even saved up money for the pricey treatment. But she says opening up about this publicly comes with a risk.
“Even while filming this, I am also very aware that there is strangely…a political risk or a political tax that could come with sharing this information. I am okay with that. This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of my life,” said Ocasio-Cortez in the video.
“I am also aware that in all of this kind of swirling conversation that happens, I am now kind of opening the door to this (freezing eggs) being part of that discussion,” the politician added.
Ocasio-Cortez’s announcement comes amid the Trump administration making abortion and other reproductive health services harder to access for women.
On 7 August, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signalled that the government would be “putting practices and policies in place” to stop the shipment of abortion pill Mifepristone.
In January 2025, Trump used his executive authority to restore US participation in two international anti-abortion pacts. One of the pacts included cutting off family funds for foreign organisations if they provide or promote abortions.
The AOC of egg-freezing
Ocasio-Cortez shared how daunting the process of freezing her eggs felt. She went on to show the medicines and injections that she was supposed to take during the process.
“As women, in general, we are not taught about our bodies. We are not prepared for our own lives, whether that is in puberty, whether that is in pregnancy, whether that is in perimenopause, or menopause. I think we need to show more depictions of women having full lives in every context and every choice,” she said.
From restricting federal funding to reversing Biden-era protections and limiting family-planning programs to controlling Mifepristone— the Trump administration is cracking down on choices women want to make about their bodies.
Following her announcement, Ocasio-Cortez began responding to comments about the medication cost and how one should prepare for the process.
“A big variable of your cost is your medication. On top of that, because our medical system is so broken. I shopped around, and there were some pharmacies that were quoting me seven grand when I gave them my insurance information. And my insurance doesn’t cover the medication. I had saved for it for a long time. So I am paying for it outright,” she said, hinting at the increasing costs of medical insurance in the US.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)